ABSTRACT
LORD MANCASTER was in a very bad humour as he drove with Karyl Pendragon to the Devon, the most luxurious dining place in London. And perhaps this was not to be wondered at. He was a man the world had decided to spoil. Endowed with physical gifts of a high order, health, strength, a handsome face, a splendid presence, he possessed, moreover, one of the oldest titles in England, great estates, enormous wealth, and the finest racing stud in the country. He had, withal, the envied reputation of being irresistible to woman. A curious code of honour obtaining at this period sheltered him from adverse criticism. It may be summed up briefly in the formula known as ‘paying the piper’ for if a man compensated liberally in hard cash those who assisted in, or connived at, his pleasures, he was held to be a good fellow, and no one raised a word of complaint against him. If anyone suffered, it was that person’s own lookout. And 66why should anybody suffer who had a comfortable income? asked the age that lay under the stalking terror of poverty.
