s nothing to impede his entrance
to the club, or the execution of the command which he gave for tea
and buttered toast. But no one spoke to him; nor, though he affected
a look of comfort, did he find himself much at his ease. Among the
members of the club there was a much divided opinion whether he
should be expelled or not. There was a strong party who declared that
his conduct socially, morally, and politically, had been so bad that
nothing short of expulsion would meet the case. But there were others
who said that no act had been proved against him which the club ought
to notice. He had, no doubt, shown himself to be a blackguard, a man
without a spark of honour or honesty. But then,--as they said who
thought his position in the club to be unassailable,--what had the
club to do with that? "If you turn out all the blackguards and all
the dishonourable men, where will the club be?" was a question asked
with a great deal of vigour by one middle-aged gentleman who was
supposed to know the club-world very thoroughly. He had committed no
offence which the law could recognise and punish, nor had he sinned
against the club rules. "He is not required to be a man of honour by
any regulation of which I am aware," said the middle-aged gentleman.
The general opinion seemed to be that he should be asked to go, and
that, if he declined, no one should speak to him. This penalty was
already inflicted on him, for on the evening in question no one did
speak to him.

He drank his tea and ate his toast and read a magazine, striving to
look as comfortable and as much at his ease as men at their clubs
generally are. He was not a bad actor, and those who saw him and made
reports as to his conduct on the following day declared that he had
apparently been quite indifferent to the disagreeable incidents of
his position. But his indifference had been mere acting. His careless
manner with his wife had been all assumed. Selfish as he was, void as
he was of all principle, utterly unmanly and even unconscious of the
worth of manliness, still he was alive to the opinions of others. He
thought that the world was wrong to condemn him,--that the world did
not understand the facts of his case, and that the world generally
would have done as he had done in similar circumstances. He did not
know that there was such a quality as honesty, nor did he understand
what the word meant. But he did know that some men, an unfortunate
class, became subject to evil