an. Through the open door came the clatter of Bittridge's feet as he
ran down-stairs.

VII.

When Mrs. Kenton came from quieting the hysterical girl in her room she
had the task, almost as delicate and difficult, of quieting her husband.
She had kept him, by the most solemn and exhaustive entreaty, from
following Bittridge downstairs and beating him with his stick, and now
she was answerable to him for his forbearance. "If you don't behave
yourself, Rufus," she had to say, "you will have some sort of stroke.
After all, there's no harm done."

"No harm! Do you call it no harm for that hound to kiss Ellen?"

"He wouldn't have attempted it unless something had led up to it, I
suppose."

"Sarah! How can you speak so of that angel?"

"Oh, that angel is a girl like the rest. You kissed me before we were
engaged."

"That was very different."

"I don't see how. If your daughter is so sacred, why wasn't her mother?
You men don't think your wives are sacred. That's it!"

"No, no, Sarah! It's because I don't think of you as apart from myself,
that I can't think of you as I do of Ellen. I beg your pardon if I
seemed to set her above you. But when I kissed you we were very young,
and we lived in a simple day, when such things meant no harm; and I was
very fond of you, and you were the holiest thing in the world to me. Is
Ellen holy to that fellow?"

"I know," Mrs. Kenton relented. "I'm not comparing him to you. And there
is a difference with Ellen. She isn't like other girls. If it had been
Lottie--"

"I shouldn't have liked it with Lottie, either," said the major,
stiffly. "But if it had been Lottie she would have boxed his ears for
him, instead of running to you. Lottie can take care of herself. And I
will take care of Ellen. When I see that scoundrel in the morning--"

"What will you do, an old man like you! I can tell you, it's something
you've just got to bear it if you don't want the scandal to fill the
whole hotel. It's a very fortunate thing, after all. It'll put an end to
the whole affair."

"Do you think so, Sarah? If I believed that. What does Ellen say?"

"Nothing; she won't say anything--just cries and hides her face. I
believe she is ashamed of having made a scene before us. But I know that
she's so disgusted with him that she will never look at him again, and
if it's brought her to that I should think his kissing her the greatest
blessing in the world to us all. Yes, Ellen!"

Mrs. Kenton hurr