ersuade you
to sit down with me to a quiet discussion of a plan for living together
or apart, abstaining from mutual injury--"

Lord Carse dissented audibly from their living together, and the lady
from living apart.

"Why," remonstrated the President, "things cannot be worse than they are
now. You make life a hell--"

"I am sure it is to me!" sighed Lord Carse.

"It is not yet so to me," said the lady. "I--"

"It is not!" thundered her husband, turning suddenly round upon her.
"Then I will take care it shall be."

"For God's sake, hush!" exclaimed the President, shocked to the soul.

"Do your worst," said the lady, rising. "We will try which has the most
power. You know what ruin is."

"Stop a moment," said the President. "I don't exactly like to have this
quiet house of mine made a hell of. I cannot have you part on these
terms."

But the lady had curtseyed, and was gone. For a minute or two nothing
was said. Then a sort of scream was heard from upstairs.

"My Janet!" cried Lord Carse.

"I will go and see," said the President. "Janet is my especial pet, you
know."

He immediately returned, smiling, and said, "There is nothing amiss with
Janet. Come and see."

Janet was on her mother's lap, her arms thrown round her neck, while the
mother's tears streamed over them both. "Can you resist this?" the
President asked of Lord Carse. "Can you keep them apart after this?"

"I can," he replied. "I will not permit her the devilish pleasure she
wants--of making my own children my enemies."

He was going to take Janet by force: but the President interfered, and
said authoritatively to Lady Carse that she had better go: her time was
not yet come. She must wait; and his advice was to wait patiently and
harmlessly.

It could not have been believed how instantaneously a woman in such
emotion could recover herself.

She put Janet off her knee. In an instant there were no more traces of
tears, and her face was composed, and her manner hard.

"Good-bye, my dear," she said to the weeping Janet. "Don't cry so, my
dear. Keep your tears; for you will have something more to cry for
soon. I am going home to pack my trunk for London. Have my friends any
commands for London?"

And she looked round steadily upon the three faces.

The President was extremely grave when their eyes met; but even his eye
sank under hers. He offered his arm to conduct her downstairs, and took
leave of her at the gate wit