"He adores you," replied the Earl, bending his great eyes on her. "And are you not the guardian angel of our house?" He smiled in a light bitterness. "You are hard worked, I know, my dear, but I must ask you to save Marius."
"To save Marius? From whom?"
"From himself," said my lord; "from me."
Miss Chressham moved back against the wall.
"You think I have no right to speak," continued the Earl, smiling, "of anything—but, you said I was not frank with you, now I tell you openly. He plays at consoling the Countess. I shall not take that; cannot you find occasion to remind him of what he may not do?"
Miss Chressham moistened her lips.
"Marius is very young and romantical," she said in a low voice; "he is absolutely honourable, Rose."
"As honourable as the rest of us," replied my lord. "But I do not object to his morals, my dear, only let him go abroad for his amusements."
Susannah seemed to rouse herself from some shivering absorption in hastily projected visions of disaster.
"You take this heavily enough," she said. "I had liked it better if such had been your tone with regard to Miss Boyle."