Ravenshoe. By Henry Kingsley.

276 RAVENSHOE.
have done so. In the present case, I have not been such a fool.
Charles is restored to Lord Saltire through my instrumentality.
A very good basis of operations, Lady Welter."
" At a risk of about half a million of money," remarked Adelaide.
"There was no risk in the other course, certainly," said Lord
Welter, " for we should never have seen a farthing of it. And
besides, Lady Welter-"
"Well! "
" I have your attention. Good. It may seem strange to you,
who care about no one in heaven or earth, but I love this fellow,
this Charles Horton. I always did. He is worth all the men I
ever met put together. I am glad to have been able to give him
a lift this morning. Even if I had not been helping myself, I
should have done it all the same. That is comical, is it not?
For Lord Saltire's landed property I shall fight. The campaign
begins at lunch, to-day, Lady Welter; so, if you will be so good
as to put on your full war-paint and feathers, we will dig up the
tomahawk, and be off on the war-trail in your ladyship's brougham. Good by for the present."
Adelaide was beaten. She was getting afraid of her husband;
afraid of his strong, masculine cunning, of his reckless courage,
and of the strange apparition of a great brutal heart at the bottom of it all. What were all her fine-spun female cobwebs worth
against such a huge, blundering thieving hornet as he?
CHAPTER XLVI.
TO LUNCH WITH LORD ASCOT.
THAT same day, Lord Saltire and Lady Ascot were sitting in
the drawing-room window, in South Audley Street, alone. He
had come in, as his custom was, about eleven, and found her reading her great old Bible; he had taken up the paper and read
away for a time, saying that he would not interrupt her; she, too,
had seemed glad to avoid a tete-a-tete conversation, and had continued; but, after a few minutes, he had dropped the paper, and
cried, -
"The deuce! "
"My dear James," said she, " what is the matter?"
"Matter! why, we have lost a war-steamer, almost without a