powering. Besides, she had just caught a
lesson from her aunt, in the "_womanly_ art of self-defence," the
muscular development for which lies in the tongue.

"Do you call Colonel Bancker low company, father?"

"Colonel Bancker? No, girl! Colonel Bancker is a gentleman and a
soldier," replied the Judge. "I am speaking of that low, contemptible
scoundrel, Wallace."

"And _he_ has been in the habit of coming here with your consent, papa,"
answered the daughter, "and so I do not know how we were to blame for
receiving the visits of people when you were gone, whom you were in the
habit of receiving when you were at home."

"Hush, child! Hush, Emily!" Mrs. Owen felt it necessary to say at this
moment. She had not before spoken a word, but she may have felt that
that incarnation of reason and dignity, her husband, was "taking damage"
at the hands of very ordinary mortals. "Hush, child--do not bandy words
with your father."

"No, miss, do not bandy words with _me_!" roared the Judge, put exactly
upon the right track, from which he had before strayed a little, by the
words of his wife. "_I_ am master in this house, as I mean to let you
know!" Humble Judge!--he _had_ let them know it, long before, quite as
much as lay in his power. "I will not allow myself to be run over in
this manner, any longer!" Ponderous and self-sacrificing Judge!--apart
from the fact that no one in that house had ever tried the experiment,
what a vehicle it would have been that could "run over" that man without
danger from the encounter! And now gathering strength and force as well
as anger, as he rolled down the mountain of denunciation, he went on: "I
have called you down, both of you, and you especially, Emily, to make a
final settlement with you! I have told you before that you should marry
Colonel John Boadley Bancker, and I need not tell you again, for by
G--you _shall_! And now I tell you something more. If you ever permit
that d--d low-lived, miserable, contemptible puppy, whom you call Frank
Wallace, to cross the door-step of this house again, I will break every
bone in his infernal carcase; and when he goes into the street, you go
with him! Do you hear?"

"Yes, father, I hear," said his daughter.

"Yes, we both hear, as I suppose you intended it for both of us," said
his sister.

"I intended it for _everybody_!" roared the Judge. "Now let us see
whether you obey or not! Come, Mrs. Owen, is supper ready?"

Probably the Judge supposed t