Lord Putnam looked startled, and said, hastily:
"Of course, you would not consider a trifle like that binding on a grown man."
The stately mother looked somewhat disappointed, and answered, slowly:
"I had hoped it might be, especially as you have no other entanglement."
"Why are you so sure of that, my dear mother?"
She started, and gave him a frightened look.
"Oh, I—I—hope there is none," she said, vaguely.
For a moment it came to him to tell her this love story.
"A mother's sympathy would be very sweet," he thought.
But a sudden impulse of pride restrained him.