"I wonder if that might be considered a hint," Letitia observed, glancing at the watch upon her wrist.  "All right, aunt, I'll go.  You wouldn't believe, Mr. Thain," she added, buttoning her gloves, "that one's relations are supposed to be a help to one in life?"

"You're only wasting your time with Mr. Thain, dear," her aunt replied equably.  "I've studied his character.  We were eight days on that steamer, you know, and all the musical comedy young ladies in the world seemed to be on board, and I can give you my word that Mr. Thain is a woman-hater."

"I am really more interested in him now than I have ever been before," Letitia declared, laughing into his eyes.  "My great grievance with Charlie Grantham is that he cannot keep away from our hated rivals in the other world.  However, you'll talk to me again, won't you, Mr. Thain?"

David was conscious of a curious fit of reserve, a sudden closing up of that easy intimacy into which they seemed to have drifted.

"I shall always be pleased," he said stiffly.

Letitia kissed her aunt and departed.  The Duchess sank into her empty place.

"I am going to be a beast," she began.  "Have you been lending money to my brother?"

"Not a sixpence," David assured her.

The Duchess was evidently staggered.

"You surprise me," she confessed.  "However, so much the better.  It won't interfere with what I have to say to you.  I first took you to Grosvenor Square, didn't I?"

"You were so kind," he admitted.

"Now I come to think of it," she reflected, "I remember thinking it strange at the time that, though I couldn't induce you to go anywhere else, or meet any one else, you never hesitated about making Reginald's acquaintance."

"He was your brother, you see," David reminded her.

"It didn't occur to me," she replied drily, "that that was the reason. However, what I want to say to you is this, in bald words--don't lend him money."

David looked once more across the tops of the trees.

"I gather that the 

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