Maine drew himself back into the room and faced round. "Does she love you?" he asked; and there was a curious change in his manner towards his friend.
"I don't know that she does," Manning said, rather uncomfortably. "But that would come right. She would marry me, naturally."
"Well, I mean the position. Lady Herbert Manning could go where Mrs Glinn could not, and all that sort of thing."
"The only question is whether you can bring yourself to ask her?"
"My dear chap, you don't put it too pleasantly."
Lord Herbert hesitated. Then he said dubiously, "I suppose so."
Maine lit another cigar and sat down again. His face was very white. "You're rather conventional, Manning," he said presently.
"You think her--this Mrs Glinn--a good woman. Isn't that enough for you?"
"But, besides Eve and myself, there is a third person in the situation."
"How on earth did you find out that?" exclaimed Maine.
The other looked surprised. "How did I find out? I don't understand you."
Maine recollected himself. He had made the common mistake of fancying another might know a thing because he knew it.
"I don't know that I agree. But the third person does certainly complicate the situation. What are you going to do then?"
Lord Herbert put down his pipe. It was not smoked out. "That's what I want to know," he answered.
"Of course, there's the one way--of being unconventional. Then, there's the way of being conventional but unhappy. Is there any alternative?"
Lord Herbert hesitated obviously, but at length he said: "There is, of course; but Mrs Glinn is a curious sort of woman. I don't quite know--"
He paused, looking at his friend. Maine's face was drawn and fierce.
"Nothing; only I shouldn't advise you to try the alternative. That's all."
"Just this," replied the other. "That I know Mrs Glinn, that I agree with you about her character--"
They looked each other in the eyes while a minute passed. Then Lord Herbert said slowly, "I understand."
"That I have come to the wrong man for advice."
There was a silence, broken only by the ticking of a clock and the uneasy movements of Maine's fox-terrier, which was lying before the empty grate and dreaming of departed fires.
At last Maine said: "To-day I asked Mrs Glinn to marry me."