It is not for their scrambled intellects to discriminate between the chorus-girl brand of attack and the subtle wooing of a gentlewoman.

They can't analyse--they can't feel! And this insipid, egotistical little bounder is actually sitting there and asking me to help him with the girl I love! Good Lord, what next ?" He surveyed the eager Ulstervelt in the most irritating manner, finally laughing outright in his face.

The very thought of him as Connie's accepted lover! She, the adorable, the splendid, the unapproachable! It was excruciatingly funny! "Oh, I say, old man," cried Freddie, when the disconcerting laugh came, "don't laugh! It's no damned joke." "'Pon my soul, Ulstervelt," apologised Brock, with a magnanimous smile, "I haven't said it was a joke.

You--" "Then, what are you laughing at?
Something you heard yesterday ?" with fine scorn.

Brock stared hard at the flushed, boyish face of the other; it was weak and yet as hard as brass, hard with the overbearing confidence of the spoiled child of wealth.
"See here, Ulstervelt," he said with sudden coldness, "you're asking my help.