and----"

"Softly, softly, my dear boy; let the presence of a lady be remembered."

"Oh! pray let us have no high words!" the lady said. "For mercy's sake,
don't quarrel, gentlemen!"

"Madam," Leslie Travers said, in an excited voice, "you have heard the
basest slanders uttered against--against one whom I would not name in
such company. Look you, sir," Leslie said, seizing the velvet sleeve of
Sir Maxwell's coat--"look you, sir; you have been a liar, and you are
now a coward. I will prove it."

"Come, come, gentlemen; no brawling here," said the master of the
ceremonies, bustling up. "Settle your matters elsewhere. A man of honour
has his remedy."

"Precisely!" said Sir Maxwell, who was white with rage. "Precisely! And
as to you, poor boy--poor insensate boy--I will send my answer to your
private residence as befits a gentleman; but I decline to brawl here.
Move off, sir, I say!"

A knot of people had collected, and young Beresford was one. He took
Leslie's arm, and said:

"Come away, and cool yourself."

"I will not cool. I will throw the lie back in that fellow's throat;
and----"

But Mr. Beresford drew Leslie away; but not before Lady Betty--cloaked
and muffled, ready to step into her chair--pressed through the little
crowd.

"What is it? Goodness! What is amiss, Sir Maxwell?"

"My dear lady, we have a madman to deal with--that's all. We will settle
our affairs on Claverton Down, as others have done."

"Oh, mercy! don't fight a duel; it is too shocking, it's----"

But Sir Maxwell hurried Lady Betty away, saying in his cold, hard voice,
which, however, trembled a little:

"That poor boy will repent insulting me; but let it not disturb you."
And then Sir Maxwell resigned Lady Betty to David's care, and she was
soon lost to sight in the recesses of the chair.

The ubiquitous Zach had been on the watch, and had reached North Parade
before Lady Betty.

Graves, who, as we know, had been anxiously watching for Lady Betty's
return, and congratulating herself that she had got Griselda safely to
her own room before her ladyship arrived, heard Zach's voice below.

Mrs. Abbott loved news, and thus was ready to pardon the boy's late
return to the little box where he slept below-stairs, dignified with the
name of the "butler's pantry;" and Graves, at the sound of voices, went
to the top of the kitchen stairs, and hearing Miss Mainwaring's name,
went down two or three steps.

"Is anything wrong?" she aske