“Ah, but think what a lot of ladies would think me a hero,” he replied with enthusiasm. “And I might also be banished from the country. You can never tell where luck and lightning will strike next.”
“Go away, Adam,” she said. “You are perfectly monstrous.”
“I’ll go and have a look at Ted,” he answered, calmly. “If he is a gentleman he will probably insult me without delay.”
To Lady Margaret’s utter dismay and astonishment, he sauntered off at once and actually went to where Suffle was standing, and had himself presented.
“I have asked for this honor,” he said, “the sooner to offer my best congratulations on your betrothal. Lady Margaret has told me a little about it. She is the happiest girl I have ever seen in all my life.”
“You are a good chap to say so,” said Suffle. “Do you know, I fancied I should like you, Mr. Rust, the moment I saw you.”
“I should like to give you my friendship as a wedding present,” Adam told him, honestly, knowing at once that Suffle was a fellow he could really somewhat like. Then he added, more equivocally: “I have known Lady Margaret so long that I shall take great happiness in seeing the consummation of this happy event.”
CHAPTER VI.
JUGGLING WITH FIRE.
Lady Margaret was a beautiful woman. The next time he met her, Adam realized that this was true. He stood looking down upon her, where she sat on a low divan which was made to throw two persons very close together, and into which he had avoided squeezing. The young woman looked up at him winningly, a slumberous passion in her garnet-brown eyes. Her creamy white bosom rose and fell in a calm voluptuousness, the twin beauties of which were more than suggested.