ad would have fallen off and rolled on to the
floor, had it followed the course which its owner seemed to intend
that it should take. His hands hung down also along the back legs of
the chair, till his fingers almost touched the ground, and altogether
his appearance was pendent, drooping, and woebegone. Miss Spruce
was seated in one corner of the room, with her hands folded in her
lap before her, and Mrs Roper was standing on the rug with a look
of severe virtue on her brow,--of virtue which, to judge by its
appearance, was very severe. Nor was its severity intended to be
exercised solely against Mrs Lupex. Mrs Roper was becoming very tired
of Mr Lupex also, and would not have been unhappy if he also had run
away,--leaving behind him so much of his property as would have paid
his bill.

Mr Lupex did not stir when first addressed by John Eames, but a
certain convulsive movement was to be seen on the back of his head,
indicating that this new arrival in the drawing-room had produced a
fresh accession of agony. The chair, too, quivered under him, and
his fingers stretched themselves nearer to the ground and shook
themselves.

"Mr Lupex, we're going to dinner immediately," said Mrs Roper. "Mr
Eames, where is your friend, Mr Cradell?"

"Upon my word I don't know," said Eames.

"But I know," said Lupex, jumping up and standing at his full height,
while he knocked down the chair which had lately supported him. "The
traitor to domestic bliss! I know. And wherever he is, he has that
false woman in his arms. Would he were here!" And as he expressed
the last wish he went through a motion with his hands and arms which
seemed intended to signify that if that unfortunate young man were in
the company he would pull him in pieces and double him up, and pack
him close, and then despatch his remains off, through infinite space,
to the Prince of Darkness. "Traitor," he exclaimed, as he finished
the process. "False traitor! Foul traitor! And she too!" Then, as he
thought of this softer side of the subject, he prepared himself to
relapse again on to the chair. Finding it on the ground he had to
pick it up. He did pick it up, and once more flung away his head over
the back of it, and stretched his finger-nails almost down to the
carpet.

"James," said Mrs Roper to her son, who was now in the room, "I think
you'd better stay with Mr Lupex while we are at dinner. Come, Miss
Spruce, I'm very sorry that you should be annoyed by this kind