ight, answered not a word, but
again shifted the reins so as to make way for her bonnet. Acknowledging
the attention with one more epithet, she seated herself in the cab, from
which Marmaduke at once indignantly rose to escape. But the hardiest
Grasmere wrestler, stooping under the hood of a hansom, could not resist
a vigorous pull at his coat tails; and Marmaduke was presently back in
his seat again, with Susanna clinging to him and half sobbing:

"Oh, Bob, youve killed me. How could you?" Then, with a suspiciously
sudden recovery of energy, she screamed "Bijou Theatre. Drive on, will
you" up at the cabman, who was looking down through the trapdoor. The
horse plunged forward, and, with the jolt, she was fawning on
Marmaduke's arm again, saying, "Dont be brutal to me any more, Bob. I
cant bear it. I have enough trouble without your turning on me."

He was young and green, and too much confused by this time to feel sure
that he had not been the aggressor. But he did, on the whole, the wisest
thing--folded his arms and sat silent, with his cheeks burning.

"Say something to me," she said, shaking his arm. "I have nothing to
say," he replied. "I shall leave town for home to-night. I cant shew my
face again after this."

"Home," she said, in her former contemptuous tone, flinging his arm
away. "That means your cousin Constance."

"Who told you about her?"

"Never mind. You are engaged to her."

"You lie!"

Susanna was shaken. She looked hard at him, wondering whether he was
deceiving her or not. "Look me in the face, Bob," she said. If he had
complied, she would not have believed him. But he treated the challenge
with supreme disdain and stared straight ahead, obeying his male
instinct, which taught him that the woman, with all the advantages on
her side, would nevertheless let him win if he held on. At last she came
caressingly to his shoulder again, and said:

"Why didnt you tell me about her yourself?"

"Damn it all," he exclaimed, violently, "there is nothing to tell! I am
not engaged to her: on my oath I am not. My people at home talk about a
match between us as if it were a settled thing, though they know I dont
care for her. But if you want to have the truth, I cant afford to say
that I wont marry her, because I am too hard up to quarrel with the
governor, who has set his heart on it. You see, the way I am
circumstanced----"

"Oh, bother your circumstances! Look here, Bob, I dont want you to
introduce m