which the whole purport was to _excuse_ the vices of the lower classes
on the ground of their poverty and their temptations. Could anything be
more immoral, more rotten in principle? _There_ is the spirit we have
to contend against--a spirit of accursed lenity in morals, often
originating in so-called scientific considerations! Evil is evil--vice,
vice--the devil is the devil--be circumstances what they may. I do not
care to make mention of such monstrous aberrations as, for instance,
the attacks we are occasionally forced to hear on the law of marriage.
That is the mere reek of the bottomless pit, palpable to all. But I
speak of subtler disguises of evil, such as may recommend themselves to
persons well-intentioned but of weak understanding. Happily, I
persuaded my friends to discontinue their countenance of that weekly
paper, and I shall exert myself everywhere to the same end."

They rose at length, and went to the drawing-room. There Glazzard
succeeding in seating himself by Miss Mumbray, and for a quarter of an
hour he talked with her about art and literature. The girl's face
brightened; she said little, but that little with very gracious smiles.
Then Mr. Vialls approached, and the _tete-a-tete_ was necessarily at an
end.

When he was at length alone with his wife, the Mayor saw what was in
store for him; in fact, he had foreseen it throughout the evening.

"Yes," began the lady, with flashing eyes, "this is your Mr. Glazzard!
He encourages Serena in her shameful behaviour! I overheard him talking
to her."

"You are altogether wrong, as usual," replied Mr. Mumbray, with his
wonted attempt at dignified self-assertion. "Glazzard distinctly
disapproves of Bawlzac, and everything of that kind. His influence is
as irreproachable as that of Mr. Vialls."

"Of course! You are determined to overthrow my plans at whatever cost
to your daughter's happiness here and hereafter."

"I don't think Vialls a suitable husband for her, and I am not sorry
she won't listen to him. He's all very well as a man and a clergyman,
but--pshaw! what's the good of arguing with a pig-headed woman?"

This emphatic epithet had the result which was to be expected. The
debate became a scolding match, lasting well into the night. These two
persons were not only on ill-terms, they disliked each other with the
intensity which can only be engendered by thirty years of a marriage
such as, but for public opinion, would not have lasted thirty weeks.