something exasperating, but meant to keep his temper.
    »I am going to marry the other girl.«
    »Have you fallen in love?« This question carried a strong sneer.
    »I am going to marry her.«
    »You have made her an offer already, then?«
    »No.«
    »She is a young lady with a will of her own, I fancy. Extremely well fitted
to make a rumpus. She would know what she liked.«
    »She doesn't like you,« said Grandcourt, with the ghost of a smile.
    »Perfectly true,« said Lush, adding again in a markedly sneering tone,
»However, if you and she are devoted to each other, that will be enough.«
    Grandcourt took no notice of this speech, but sipped his coffee, rose, and
strolled out on the lawn, all the dogs following him.
    Lush glanced after him a moment, then resumed his cigar and lit it, but
smoked slowly, consulting his beard with inspecting eyes and fingers, till he
finally stroked it with an air of having arrived at some conclusion, and said,
in a subdued voice -
    »Check, old boy!«
    Lush, being a man of some ability, had not known Grandcourt for fifteen
years without learning what sort of measures were useless with him, though what
sort might be useful remained often dubious. In the beginning of his career he
held a fellowship, and was near taking orders for the sake of a college living,
but not being fond of that prospect accepted instead the office of travelling
companion to a marquess, and afterwards to young Grandcourt, who had lost his
father early, and who found Lush so convenient that he had allowed him to become
prime minister in all his more personal affairs. The habit of fifteen years had
made Grandcourt more and more in need of Lush's handiness, and Lush more and
more in need of the lazy luxury to which his transactions on behalf of
Grandcourt made no interruption worth reckoning. I cannot say that the same
lengthened habit had intensified Grandcourt's want of respect for his companion
since that want had been absolute from the beginning, but it had confirmed his
sense that he might kick Lush if he chose - only he never did choose to kick any
animal, because the act of kicking is a compromising attitude, and a gentleman's
dogs should be kicked for him. He only said things which might have exposed
himself to be kicked if his confidant had been a man of independent spirit. But
what son of a vicar who has stinted his