"He did do so when he had my son and my daughter under his roof."

"Hampstead does not belong to a single club in London," said the
step-mother.

"So much the better," said the father, "as far as I know anything
about the clubs. Hautboy lost fourteen hundred pounds the other day
at the Pandemonium; and where did the money come from to save him
from being expelled?"

"That's a very old story," said the Marchioness, who knew that her
husband and Hampstead between them had supplied the money to save the
young lad from disgrace.

"And yet you throw it in my teeth that Hampstead doesn't belong to
any club! There isn't a club in London he couldn't get into
to-morrow, if he were to put his name down."

"I wish he'd try at the Carlton," said her ladyship, whose father
and brother, and all her cousins, belonged to that aristocratic and
exclusive political association.

"I should disown him," said the still Liberal Marquis;--"that is to
say, of course he'll do nothing of the kind. But to declare that a
young man has disgraced himself because he doesn't care for club
life, is absurd;--and coming from you as his stepmother is wicked."
As he said this he bobbed his head at her, looking into her face as
though he should say to her, "Now you have my true opinion about
yourself." At this moment there came a gentle knock at the door, and
Mr. Greenwood put in his head. "I am busy," said the Marquis very
angrily. Then the unhappy chaplain retired abashed to his own rooms,
which were also on the ground floor, beyond that in which his patron
was now sitting.

"My lord," said his wife, towering in her passion, "if you call me
wicked in regard to your children, I will not continue to live under
the same roof with you."

"Then you may go away."

"I have endeavoured to do my duty by your children, and a very
hard time I've had of it. If you think that your daughter is now
conducting herself with propriety, I can only wash my hands of her."

"Wash your hands," he said.

"Very well. Of course I must suffer deeply, because the shadow of the
disgrace must fall more or less upon my own darlings."

"Bother the darlings," said the Marquis.

"They're your own children, my lord; your own children."

"Of course they are. Why shouldn't they be my own children? They are
doing very well, and will get quite as good treatment as younger
brothers ought to have."

"I don't believe you care for them the least in the world," said the
Marchio