ore presence of mind than her
mother, stopped Jemima as she was making to one of the front windows.
"Keep where you are," said Amelia. "They'll come quiet in a minute
or two." And Amelia no doubt was right. Calling for the police when
there is a row in the house is like summoning the water-engines
when the soot is on fire in the kitchen chimney. In such cases good
management will allow the soot to burn itself out, without aid from
the water-engines. In the present instance the police were not called
in, and I am inclined to think that their presence would not have
been advantageous to any of the party.

"Upon--my--honour--I know nothing about her," were the first words
which Cradell was able to articulate, when Lupex, under Eames's
persuasion, at last relaxed his hold.

Lupex turned round to Miss Spruce with a sardonic grin. "You hear his
words,--this enemy to domestic bliss,-- Ha, ha! man, tell me whither
you have conveyed my wife!"

"If you were to give me the Bank of England I don't know," said
Cradell.

"And I'm sure he does not know," said Mrs Roper, whose suspicions
against Cradell were beginning to subside. But as her suspicions
subsided, her respect for him decreased. Such was the case also with
Miss Spruce, and with Amelia, and with Jemima. They had all thought
him to be a great fool for running away with Mrs Lupex, but now
they were beginning to think him a poor creature because he had not
done so. Had he committed that active folly he would have been an
interesting fool. But now, if, as they all suspected, he knew no more
about Mrs Lupex than they did, he would be a fool without any special
interest whatever.

"Of course he doesn't," said Eames.

"No more than I do," said Amelia.

"His very looks show him innocent," said Mrs Roper.

"Indeed they do," said Miss Spruce.

Lupex turned from one to the other as they thus defended the man
whom he suspected, and shook his head at each assertion that was
made. "And if he doesn't know who does?" he asked. "Haven't I seen
it all for the last three months? Is it reasonable to suppose that a
creature such as she, used to domestic comforts all her life, should
have gone off in this way, at dinner-time, taking with her my
property and all her jewels, and that nobody should have instigated
her; nobody assisted her! Is that a story to tell to such a man
as me! You may tell it to the marines!" Mr Lupex, as he made this
speech, was walking about the room, and as h