Be very sure of that." Lionel stared up at him.

"O God!" he cried presently, "I know not what to believe.

I am a shuttle-cock flung this way and that way." "Believe me," said Sir Oliver grimly.

"And set all doubts to rest." Then he smiled.

"So that was the virtuous Master Peter's secret pastime, eh?
The hypocrisy of man! There is no plumbing the endless depths of it!" He laughed outright, remembering all the things that Master Peter had said of Ralph Tressilian--delivering himself as though he were some chaste and self-denying anchorite.