k I want to see her married
to--to--the son of a fellow like that--a canting snuffler who prigs
letters and splits on his own son?" and swinging the fat finger round
he thrust it almost into the face of Mr. Knight.

"What did you say?" gasped Godfrey. "That I am a fortune-hunter?"

"Yes, that's what I said, and I'll repeat it if you like."

"Then," went on Godfrey, speaking in a thick, low voice, for now his
temper had mastered him thoroughly, "I say that you are a liar. I say
that you are a base and vulgar man who has made money somehow and
thinks that this justifies him in insulting those who are not base or
vulgar, because they have less money."

"You infernal young scamp," shouted Sir John in a roar like to that of
an angry bull. "Do you dare to call me a liar? Apologise at once,
or----" and he stopped.

"I do not apologise. I repeat that you are a liar, the greatest liar I
ever met. Now--or what?"

Thus spoke Godfrey, drawing up his tall, slim young form to its full
height, his dark eyes flashing, his fine face alight with righteous
rage. Isobel, who was standing quite still and smiling a little, rather
contemptuously, looked at him out of the corners of her eyes and
thought that anger became him well. Never before had he seemed so
handsome to her approving judgment.

"Or this," bellowed Sir John, and, lifting the tightly rolled umbrella
he carried, he struck Godfrey with all his strength upon the side of
the head.

Godfrey staggered, but fortunately the soft hat he was wearing, upon
the brim of which the stroke fell, broke its weight to some extent, so
that he was not really hurt. Only now he went quite mad in a kind of
icy way, and, springing at Sir John with the lightness of a leopard,
dealt him two blows, one with his left hand and the next with his right.

They were good, straight blows, for boxing had been his favourite
amusement at Sandhurst where he was a middleweight champion. The first
caught Sir John upon his thick lips which were badly cut against the
teeth, causing him to stagger; while the second, that with the right,
landed on the bridge of his nose and blacked both his eyes. This, so
strong and heavy was it, notwithstanding Sir John's great weight,
knocked him clean off his feet. Back he went, and in his efforts to
save himself gripped Mr. Knight with one hand and with the other the
legs of the early Victorian angel that surmounted Lady Jane's grave
against which they were standing. Neith