At any rate he is now Lord Hartledon." She looked from one to the other in helpless doubt.

It was a contingency that had never so much as occurred to her.

Had she wanted confirmation, the next moment brought it to her from the lips of the butler.
"Hedges," called out Percival sternly, in his embarrassment and grief, "open the dining-room door.

We _must_ get the hall cleared." "The door is open, my lord." "_He_ Lord Hartledon!" shrieked the countess-dowager, "why, I was going to recommend his brother to ship him off to Canada for life." It was altogether an unseemly scene at such a time.

But almost everything the Countess-Dowager of Kirton did was unseemly..