He was, in Mrs.Friend's eyes, a strange mixture as far as social standards were concerned.

A boundless leniency in some cases; the sternest judgment in others.
For instance, a woman he had known from childhood had lately left her husband, carried off her children, and joined her lover.

Lord Buntingford was standing, stoutly by her, helping her in her divorce proceedings, paying for the education of the children, and defending her whenever he heard her attacked.

On the other hand, his will had been iron in the matter of Lord Donald, whose exposure as co-respondent in the particularly disreputable case had been lately filling the newspapers.
Mrs.Friend had seen Helena take up the _Times_ on one of the days on which the evidence in this case had appeared, and fling it down again with a flush and a look of disgust.

But since the day of the Dansworth riot, she had never mentioned Lord Donald's name.
Certainly the relations between her and her guardian had curiously changed.