him. 'I was talking about women. They
are the devil--or he makes most use of them: and you must learn to see
the cloven foot under their petticoats, if you're to escape them. There's
no protection in being in love with your wife; I married for love; I am,
I always have been, in love with her; and I went to the deuce. The music
struck up and away I waltzed. A woman like Diana Warwick might keep a
fellow straight, because she,'s all round you; she's man and woman in
brains; and legged like a deer, and breasted like a swan, and a regular
sheaf of arrows--in her eyes. Dark women--ah! But she has a contempt for
us, you know. That's the secret of her.--Redworth 's at the door. Bad? Is
it bad? I never was particularly fond of that house--hated it. I love it
now for Emmy's sake. I couldn't live in another--though I should be
haunted. Rather her ghost than nothing--though I'm an infernal coward
about the next world. But if you're right with religion you needn't fear.
What I can't comprehend in Redworth is his Radicalism, and getting richer
and richer.'

'It's not a vow of poverty,' said Dacier.

'He'll find they don't coalesce, or his children will. Once the masses
are uppermost! It's a bad day, Dacier, when we 've no more gentlemen in
the land. Emmy backs him, so I hold my tongue. To-morrow's a Sunday. I
wish you were staying here; I 'd take you to church with me-we shirk it
when we haven't a care. It couldn't do you harm. I've heard capital
sermons. I've always had the good habit of going to church, Dacier. Now
's the time for remembering them. Ah, my dear fellow, I 'm not a parson.
It would have been better for me if I had been.'

And for you too! his look added plainly. He longed to preach; he was
impelled to chatter.

Redworth reported the patient perfectly quiet, breathing calmly.

'Laudanum?' asked Sir Lukin. 'Now there's a poison we've got to bless!
And we set up in our wisdom for knowing what is good for us!'

He had talked his hearers into a stupefied assent to anything he uttered.

'Mrs. Warwick would like to see you in two or three minutes; she will
come down,' Redworth said to Dacier.

'That looks well, eh? That looks bravely,' Sir Lukin cried. 'Diana,
Warwick wouldn't leave the room without a certainty. I dread the look of
those men; I shall have to shake their hands! And so I do, with all my
heart: only--But God bless them! But we must go in, if she's coming
down.'

They entered the house, and sat in th