He returned. She held out her hand.

"You must not do as your father did," she said. "Give the woman up,
and come back to us. Am I nothing to you--nothing?"

"Is there no other way?" he asked, gravely, sorrowfully.

She did not reply. He turned to his grandfather. "There is no other
way," said the old man, sternly. Then in a voice almost shrill with pain
and indignation, he cried out as he had never done in his life: "Nothing,
nothing, nothing but disgrace! My God in heaven! a lion-tamer--a gipsy!
An honourable name dragged through the mire! Go back," he said grandly;
"go back to the woman and her lions--savages, savages, savages!"

"Savages after the manner of our forefathers," Gaston answered quietly.
"The first Gaston showed us the way. His wife was a strolling player's
daughter. Good-bye, sir."

Lady Belward's face was in her hands. "Good-bye-grandmother," he said at
the door, and then he was gone.

At the outer door the old housekeeper stepped forward, her gloomy face
most agitated.

"Oh, sir, oh, sir, you will come back again? Oh, don't go like your
father!"

He suddenly threw an arm about her shoulder, and kissed her on the cheek.