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Serena?’
    ‘I wish you will sit down! Ivo, what is to be done?’
    ‘Nothing.’
    ‘You cannot mean to accept the Trust!’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Good God, one moment’s reflection must be enough to make you see how intolerable it would be! For both of us!’
    ‘I can see why you should think it intolerable, but why should I find it so?’
    ‘You don’t want for sense, so I suppose you are trying to provoke me! Can you doubt that the story will be one of the on-dits of the town within a week? My Uncle Dorrington will take care of that! Everyone will be talking about it, and laughing at it!’
    ‘This is a new come-out for you, Serena!’ he said admiringly. ‘You were never used to give a straw for what anyone might say of you!’
    She flushed, and looked away. ‘You are mistaken. In any event, to have everyone watching us would be detestable!’
    ‘Let ’em watch! They will be tired of it by the time you are out of black gloves, and in the meanwhile it won’t worry me.’
    ‘To have everyone conjecturing?’
    ‘Lord, Serena, I’ve been food for conjecture any time these dozen years! There have been some very good stories made up about me, too.’
    She looked despairingly at him. ‘I know this humour too well to suppose it is of the least use to continue talking. You mean to fob me off by pretending not to understand me.’
    ‘No, I don’t. I understand you very well, but you’re refining too much upon it. There’s nothing remarkable in my being appointed to be your Trustee: everyone knows I was one of your father’s closest friends, and no one will be surprised that he chose to name me rather than that old fool, Dorrington, or the rasher of wind your aunt married!’
    ‘No – if it had not been for that wretched engagement!’ she said frankly. ‘ That is what makes it so intolerable! Papa’s intention is – is blatant !’
    ‘You can console yourself with the reflection that it is I, and not you, who will be a laughing-stock for the vulgar,’ he said grimly.
    ‘How can you talk so? I promise you, I don’t wish you to be put into such a position!’
    ‘Don’t waste a thought on it! I’m inured!’
    ‘Oh, how odious you are!’ she exclaimed, with suppressed violence.
    ‘ That sounds more like you!’ he said cordially. ‘I thought it would not be long!’
    She controlled herself with a strong effort, not lost on him, tightly gripping her hands together in her lap, and clenching her teeth on her lower lip.
    ‘Take care, Serena! you will go into strong convulsions if you bottle up so much spleen!’
    She was always quick to perceive the ridiculous, and gave a gasp. Her eyes did indeed flash a challenge, but her sense of humour got the better of her temper, and she burst out laughing. ‘Oh – ! At least own that you would provoke a saint!’
    ‘I never tried to. You are no saint!’
    ‘No, alas!’ she sighed. ‘Come! don’t tease me, Ivo, pray ! Is there no way of upsetting that infamous Will?’
    ‘I should imagine not. I’m no lawyer, however. Consult your father’s attorney! I warn you, he returned no very encouraging answers to your uncles, when they appealed to him. I daresay it might be upset if I were to contravene the Trust, but I shan’t.’
    ‘If you were to refuse to act – ?’
    ‘I shan’t do that either. You wouldn’t get control of your fortune if I did, and that’s what you chiefly want, isn’t it?’
    ‘Of course it is! My father gave me £250 pounds a year for pin-money, and that was very well while he lived, but how the deuce am I to support myself on such a sum?’
    ‘Don’t try to bamboozle me, my girl! Your mother’s fortune was settled on you.’
    ‘Ten thousand pounds, invested in the Funds! The whole of my income will be less than £700! Good God, Ivo, I daresay Papa must have spent as much on my hunters alone!’
    ‘Oh, more! He gave a thousand guineas for that flea-bitten gray which carried you so well last season. But you will hardly hunt