say it in your presence?'

Sir Lukin was drawn-up by the harsh question. 'Well, no; not exactly.'
He tried to hesitate, but he was in the hot vein of a confidence and
he wanted advice. 'The cur said it to a woman--hang the woman! And she
hates Diana Warwick: I can't tell why--a regular snake's hate. By Jove!
how women carp hate!'

'Who is the woman?' said Redworth.

Sir Lukin complained of the mob at his elbows. 'I don't like mentioning
names here.'

A convenient open door of offices invited him to drag his receptacle,
and possible counsellor, into the passage, where immediately he
bethought him of a postponement of the distinct communication; but the
vein was too hot. 'I say, Redworth, I wish you'd dine with me. Let's
drive up to my Club.--Very well, two words. And I warn you, I shall
call him out, and make it appear it 's about another woman, who'll like
nothing so much, if I know the Jezebel. Some women are hussies, let 'em
be handsome as houris. And she's a fire-ship; by heaven, she is! Come,
you're a friend of my wife's, but you're a man of the world and my
friend, and you know how fellows are tempted, Tom Redworth.--Cur though
he is, he's likely to step out and receive a lesson.--Well, he's the
favoured cavalier for the present... h'm... Fryar-Gannett. Swears he
told her, circumstantially; and it was down at Lockton, when Diana
Warwick was a girl. Swears she'll spit her venom at her, so that Diana
Warwick shan't hold her head up in London Society, what with that cur
Wroxeter, Old Dannisburgh, and Dacier. And it does count a list, doesn't
it? confound the handsome hag! She's jealous of a dark rival. I've been
down to Colonel Hartswood at the Tower, and he thinks Wroxeter deserves
horsewhipping, and we may manage it. I know you 're dead against
duelling; and so am I, on my honour. But you see there are cases where
a lady must be protected; and anything new, left to circulate against a
lady who has been talked of twice--Oh, by Jove! it must be stopped. If
she has a male friend on earth, it must be stopped on the spot.'

Redworth eyed Sir Lukin curiously through his wrath.

'We'll drive up to your Club,' he said.

'Hartswood dines with me this evening, to confer,' rejoined Sir Lukin.
'Will you meet him?'

'I can't,' said Redworth, 'I have to see a lady, whose affairs I have
been attending to in the City; and I 'm engaged for the evening. You
perceive, my good fellow,' he resumed, as they rolled along, 'this i