of his flock from a sound point of view, and especially encouraged them
to support the existing order of things--the British Empire and the
English Church. His cure was hereditary, and he fortunately possessed
some private means, for he had a large family. His partner at dinner was
Norah, the younger of the two Pendyce girls, who had a round, open face,
and a more decided manner than her sister Bee.

Her brother George, the eldest son, sat on her right. George was of
middle height, with a red-brown, clean-shaved face and solid jaw. His
eyes were grey; he had firm lips, and darkish, carefully brushed hair, a
little thin on the top, but with that peculiar gloss seen on the hair of
some men about town. His clothes were unostentatiously perfect. Such men
may be seen in Piccadilly at any hour of the day or night. He had
been intended for the Guards, but had failed to pass the necessary
examination, through no fault of his own, owing to a constitutional
inability to spell. Had he been his younger brother Gerald, he would
probably have fulfilled the Pendyce tradition, and passed into the Army
as a matter of course. And had Gerald (now Captain Pendyce) been George
the elder son, he might possibly have failed. George lived at his club
in town on an allowance of six hundred a year, and sat a great deal in a
bay-window reading Ruff's "Guide to the Turf."

He raised his eyes from the menu and looked stealthily round. Helen
Bellew was talking to his father, her white shoulder turned a little
away. George was proud of his composure, but there was a strange longing
in his face. She gave, indeed, just excuse for people to consider her
too good-looking for the position in which she was placed. Her figure
was tall and supple and full, and now that she no longer hunted was
getting fuller. Her hair, looped back in loose bands across a broad low
brow, had a peculiar soft lustre.