“Must you go?  Is enjoyment nothing to you?”

“Ah! you have killed all that for me,” says she.  This parting shaft she hurls at him—­malice prepense.  It is effectual.  By it she murders sleep as thoroughly as ever did Macbeth.  The professor spends the remainder of the night pacing up and down his rooms.

CHAPTER XIII.

    “Through thick and thin, both over bank and bush,
    In hopes her to attain by hook or crook.”

“You will begin to think me a fixture,” says Hardinge, with a somewhat embarrassed laugh, flinging himself into an armchair.

“You know you are always welcome,” says the professor gently, if somewhat absently.

It is next morning, and he looks decidedly the worse for his sleeplessness.  His face seems really old, his eyes are sunk in his head.  The breakfast lying untouched upon the table tells its own tale.

“Dissipation doesn’t agree with you,” says Hardinge with a faint smile.

“No.  I shall give it up,” returns Curzon, his laugh a trifle grim.

“I was never more surprised in my life than when I saw you at your sister’s last evening.  I was relieved, too—­sometimes it is necessary for a man to go out, and—­and see how things are going on with his own eyes.”

“I wonder when that would be?” asks the professor indifferently.

“When a man is a guardian,” replies Hardinge promptly, and with evident meaning.

The professor glances quickly at him.

“You mean——?” says he.

“Oh! yes, of course I mean something,” says Hardinge impatiently.  “But I don’t suppose you want me to explain myself.  You were there last night—­you must have seen for yourself.”

“Seen what?”

“Pshaw!” says Hardinge, throwing up his head, and flinging his cigarette into the empty fireplace.  “I saw you go into the conservatory.  You found her there, and—­him. It is beginning to be the chief topic of conversation amongst his friends just now.  The betting is already pretty free.”

“Go on,” says the professor.

“I needn’t go on.  You know it now, if you didn’t before.”

“It is you who know it—­not I. Say it!" says the professor, almost fiercely.  “It is about her?”

“Your ward?  Yes.  Your brother it seems has made up his mind to bestow upon her his hand, his few remaining acres, and,” with a sneer, “his spotless reputation.”

"Hardinge!" cries the professor, springing to his feet as if shot.  He is evidently violently agitated.  His companion mistakes the nature of his excitement.

“Forgive me!” says he quickly.  “Of course nothing can excuse my speaking of him like that—­to you.  But I feel you ought to be told.  Miss Wynter is in your care, you are in a measure responsible for her future happiness—­the happiness of her whole life, Curzon—­and if anything goes wrong with her——­”