he room
into a place by herself, and keep her there.

'I won't repeat what he said.' Colonel Innes took up the 'Saturday
Review'.

'Oh, do, Horace! I particularly want to know.'

Innes said nothing.

'Horace! Was it--was it anything about Mr. Holmcroft being my
Secretariat baa-lamb?'

'If you adorn your guess with a little profanity,' said Innes, acidly,
'you won't be far wrong.'

Mrs. Violet burst into a peal of laughter.

'Why, you old goose!' she articulated, behind her handkerchief; 'he said
that to ME.'

Innes laid down the 'Saturday Review'.

'To you!' he repeated; 'Gordon said it to you!'

'Rather!' Mrs. Violet was still mirthful. 'I'm not sure that he didn't
call poor little Homie something worse than that. It's the purest
jealousy on his part--nothing to make a fuss about.'

The fourth skin which enables so many of us to be callous to all but the
relative meaning of careless phrases had not been given to Innes, and
her words fell upon his bare sense of propriety.

'Jealous,' he said, 'of a married woman? I find that difficult to
understand.'

Violet's face straightened out.

'Don't be absurd, Horace. These boys are always jealous of somebody or
other--it's the occupation of their lives! I really don't see how one
can prevent it.'

'It seems to me that a self-respecting woman should see how. Your point
of view in these matters is incomprehensible.'

'Perhaps,' Violet was driven by righteous anger to say, 'you find Miss
Anderson's easier to understand.'

Colonel Innes's face took its regimental disciplinary look, and, though
his eyes were aroused, his words were quiet with repression.

'I see no reason to discuss Miss Anderson with you,' he said. 'She has
nothing to do with what we are talking about.'

'Oh, don't you, really! Hasn't she, indeed! I take it you are trying to
make me believe that compromising things are said about Mr. Holmcroft
and me at the Club. Well, I advise you to keep your ears open a little
more, and listen to the things said about you and Madeline Anderson
there. But I don't suppose you would be in such a hurry to repeat them
to HER.'

Innes turned very white, and the rigidity of his face gave place to
heavy dismay. His look was that of a man upon whom misfortune had fallen
out of a clear sky. For an instant he stared at his wife. When he spoke
his voice was altered.

'For God's sake!' he said, 'let us have done with this pitiful
wrangling. I dare say you can ta