Page:C Q, or, In the Wireless House (Train, 1912).djvu/24

 was reported to the irascible Earl, her grandpapa. For the golden-haired, rose-cheeked Hon. Evelyn was a great person in the land, and the “Peerage” said that she was a lady (with a capital L) of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, and that her father, the Viscount, was a general in India; while Michael Fitzpatrick was only a common or garden son of a second son, with no pretensions to aristocracy save through the elder branch of the family, which paid no attention to his trifling existence.

So the Earl, as was his prerogative, was exceeding wroth, and, having sent for the much-embarrassed vicar, made it entirely unequivocal that Michael was to be deported beyond seas,—to Prince Rupert or Pekin, or Zanzibar,—where he could never more see his dream lady until she was safely married to a gentleman of at least her own rank and fortune. And the vicar, who, although he possessed the advowson of his own living, nevertheless feared the Earl and needed him in his business,—and who, incidentally, did not believe in kissing, either,—had a brief but serious talk with his scandalous nephew in the