ness.

"That is not true. You know I care for them."

"You said 'bother the darlings' when I spoke of them." Here the poor
mother sobbed, almost overcome by the contumely of the expression
used towards her own offspring.

"You drive a man to say anything. Now look here. I will not have
Hampstead and Fanny abused in my presence. If there be anything wrong
I must suffer more than you, because they are my children. You have
made it impossible for her to live here--"

"I haven't made it impossible for her to live here. I have only done
my duty by her. Ask Mr. Greenwood."

"D---- Mr. Greenwood!" said the Marquis. He certainly did say the
word at full length, as far as it can be said to have length, and
with all the emphasis of which it was capable. He certainly did say
it, though when the circumstance was afterwards not unfrequently
thrown in his teeth, he would forget it and deny it. Her ladyship
heard the word very plainly, and at once stalked out of the room,
thereby showing that her feminine feelings had received a wrench
which made it impossible for her any longer to endure the presence of
such a foul-mouthed monster. Up to that moment she had been anything
but the victor; but the vulgarity of the curse had restored to her
much of her prestige, so that she was able to leave the battlefield
as one retiring with all his forces in proper order. He had
"bothered" his own children, and "damned" his own chaplain!

The Marquis sat awhile thinking alone, and then pulled a string by
which communication was made between his room and that in which
the clergyman sat. It was not a vulgar bell, which would have been
injurious to the reverence and dignity of a clerical friend, as
savouring of a menial's task work, nor was it a pipe for oral
communication, which is undignified, as requiring a man to stoop
and put his mouth to it,--but an arrangement by which a light tap
was made against the wall so that the inhabitant of the room might
know that he was wanted without any process derogatory to his
self-respect. The chaplain obeyed the summons, and, lightly knocking
at the door, again stood before the lord. He found the Marquis
standing upon the hearth-rug, by which, as he well knew, it was
signified that he was not intended to sit down. "Mr. Greenwood," said
the Marquis, in a tone of voice which was intended to be peculiarly
mild, but which at the same time was felt to be menacing, "I do not
mean at the present moment to have an