ld do his pleasure. He wanted to smash the jaw bone that had
formed these lies, and he wanted the world to know he had done so. Yet
that was not enough, he wanted to throttle the throat from which the
words had come; the man ought to be killed; it was right to kill him just
as it was right to kill a poisonous snake that somehow disguised itself
as a man, and was received into the houses of men.

Indeed, should Morris be told, as he felt sure he would be, who his
slanderer and defamer was, that gentleman would be wise to keep out of
his way with him in such a mood. There was danger and death abroad on
this calm hot summer afternoon.

CHAPTER V

It was about four o'clock on the afternoon of the following day, and Mr.
Taynton was prolonging his hour of quietude after lunch, and encroaching
thereby into the time he daily dedicated to exercise. It was but seldom
that he broke into the routine of habits so long formed, and indeed the
most violent rain or snow of winter, the most cutting easterly blasts of
March, never, unless he had some definite bodily ailment, kept him
indoors or deprived him of his brisk health-giving trudge over the downs
or along the sea front. But occasionally when the weather was unusually
hot, he granted himself the indulgence of sitting still instead of
walking, and certainly to-day the least lenient judge might say that
there were strong extenuating circumstances in his favour. For the heat
of the past week had been piling itself up, like the heaped waters of
flood and this afternoon was intense in its heat, its stillness and
sultriness. It had been sunless all day, and all day the blanket of
clouds that beset the sky had been gathering themselves into blacker and
more ill-omened density. There would certainly be a thunderstorm before
morning, and the approach of it made Mr. Taynton feel that he really had
not the energy to walk. By and by perhaps he might be tempted to go in
quest of coolness along the sea front, or perhaps later in the evening he
might, as he sometimes did, take a carriage up on to the downs, and come
gently home to a late supper. He would have time for that to-day, for
according to arrangement his partner was to drop in about half past nine
that evening. If he got back at nine, supposing he went at all, he would
have time to have some food before receiving him.

He sat in a pleasant parquetted room looking out into the small square
garden at the back of his house in Mo