civilization seldom sees. Not otherwise than
when boys, having tied two cats by the tails, hang them over the handle
of a door--they then spit, and shriek, and swear, fur flies, and the
clamor goes up to heaven: so did the street resound when the young
patrons of _The Bunhouse_ were in a warlike humor. Then the stern
housekeeper would intervene, and check these motions of their minds,
_haec certamina tanta_, turning the more persistent combatants into the
street. Next day Mrs. St. John Deloraine would come in her carriage, and
try to be very severe, and then would weep a little, and all the girls
would shed tears, all would have a good cry together, and finally the
Lady Mother (Mrs. St John Deloraine) would take a few of them for a
drive in the Park. After that there would be peace for a while, and
presently disturbances would come again.

For this establishment it was that Mrs. St. John Deloraine wanted a
housekeeper and an assistant. The former housekeeper, as we have been
told, had yielded to love, "which subdues the hearts of all female
women, even of the prudent," according to Homer, and was going to share
the home and bear the children of a plumber. With her usual invincible
innocence, Mrs. St. John Deloraine had chosen to regard the Hon. Thomas
Cranley as a kind good Christian in disguise, and to him she appealed in
her need of a housekeeper and assistant.

No application could possibly have suited that gentleman better. _He_
could give his own servant an excellent character; and if once she was
left to herself, to her passions, and the society of Margaret, that
young lady's earthly existence would shortly cease to embarrass Mr.
Cranley. Probably there was not one other man among the motley herds
of Mrs. St. John Deloraine's acquaintance who would have used her
unsuspicious kindness as an instrument in a plot of any sort. But Mr.
Cranley had (when there was no personal danger to be run) the courage of
his character.

"Shall I go and lunch with her?" he asked himself, as he twisted her
note, with its characteristic black border and device of brown, and
gold. "I haven't shown anywhere I was likely to meet anyone I knew, not
since--since I came back from Monte Carlo."

Even to himself he did not like to mention that affair of the Cockpit
The man in the story who boasted that he had committed every crime in
the calendar withdrew his large words when asked "if he had ever cheated
at cards."

"Well," Mr. Cranley