shoulders, but one hand was tight shut
this time, the steel claws protruding, the handkerchief alone saving
their points from pressing into the palms.

"And is that what you came from Moorlands to tell me, Talbot?" remarked
St. George casually, adjusting the lapels of his coat.

"Yes!" retorted Rutter--he was fast losing what was left of his
self-control--"that and some other things! But we will attend to Harry
first. You gave that boy shelter when--"

"Please state it correctly, Talbot. We can get on better if you stick to
the facts." The words came slowly, but the enunciation was as perfect
as if each syllable had been parted with a knife. "I didn't give him
shelter--I gave him a home--one you denied him. But go on--I prefer to
hear you out."

The colonel's eyes blazed. He had never seen St. George like this: it
was Temple's hot outbursts that had made him so easy an adversary in
their recent disputes.

"And you will please do the same, St. George," he demanded in his most
top-lofty tone, ignoring his opponent's denial. "You know perfectly well
I turned him out of Moorlands because he had disgraced his blood, and
yet you--my life-long friend--have had the bad taste to interfere and
drag him down still lower, so that now, instead of coming to his
senses and asking my pardon, he parades himself at the club and at your
dinners, putting on the airs of an injured man."

St. George drew himself up to his full height.

"Let us change the subject, Talbot, or we will both forget ourselves.
If you have anything to say to me that will benefit Harry and settle the
difficulty between him and you, I will meet you more than half-way,
but I give you fair warning that the apology must come from you. You
have--if you will permit me to say it in my own house--behaved more like
a brute than a father. I told you so the night you turned him out in the
rain for me to take care of, and I told you so again at the club when
you tried to make a laughing-stock of him before your friends--and now I
tell you so once more! Come!--let us drop the subject--what may I offer
you to drink?--you must be rather chilled with your ride in."

Rutter was about to flare out a denial when his better judgment got
the best of him; some other tactics than the ones he had used must
be brought into play. So far he had made but little headway against
Temple's astounding coolness.

"And I am to understand, then, that you are going to keep him here?"
he dem