'I only mean that I think it would be wiser to tell all this to
Louis.'

'How can I tell him Colonel Osborne's private business, when Colonel
Osborne has desired me not to do so. For whose sake is Colonel
Osborne doing this? For papa's and mamma's! I suppose Louis won't
be jealous, because I want to have papa and mamma home. It would
not be a bit less unreasonable than the other.'




CHAPTER III

LADY MILBOROUGH'S DINNER PARTY


Louis Trevelyan went down to his club in Pall Mall, the Acrobats,
and there heard a rumour that added to his anger against Colonel
Osborne. The Acrobats was a very distinguished club, into which
it was now difficult for a young man to find his way, and almost
impossible for a man who was no longer young, and therefore known
to many. It had been founded some twenty years since with the idea
of promoting muscular exercise and gymnastic amusements; but the
promoters had become fat and lethargic, and the Acrobats spent
their time mostly in playing whist, and in ordering and eating
their dinners. There were supposed to be, in some out-of-the-way
part of the building, certain poles and sticks and parallel bars
with which feats of activity might be practised, but no one ever