s and the head chambermaid. Mrs. Walker made a
direct attack upon the Dean, which was considerably weakened by
accusations from the lips of the Marquis himself. Had he remained
speechless for a while the horrors of the Dean's conduct would have
been greatly aggravated. "My good woman," said the Dean, "wait till
some official is here. You cannot understand. And get a little warm
water and wash his lordship's head."

"He has broken my back," said his lordship. "Oh, oh, oh."

"I am glad to hear you speak, Lord Brotherton," said the Dean. "I think
you will repent having used such a word as that to my daughter." It
would be necessary now that everybody should understand everything; but
how terrible would it be for the father even to say that such a name
had been applied to his child!

First there came two policemen, then a surgeon, and then a sergeant. "I
will do anything that you suggest, Mr. Constable," said the Dean,
"though I hope it may not be necessary that I should remain in custody.
I am the Dean of Brotherton." The sergeant made a sign of putting his
finger up to his cap. "This, man, as you know, is the Marquis of
Brotherton." The sergeant bowed to the groaning nobleman. "My daughter
is married to his brother. There have been family quarrels, and he just
now applied a name to his own sister-in-law, to my child,--which I will
not utter because there are women here. Fouler slander never came from
a man's mouth. I took him from his chair and threw him beneath the
grate. Now you know it all. Were it to do again, I would do it again."

"She is a ----," said the imprudent prostrate Marquis. The sergeant,
the doctor who was now present, and Mrs. Walker suddenly became the
Dean's friends. The Marquis was declared to be much shaken, to have a
cut head, and to be very badly bruised about the muscles of the back.
But a man who could so speak of his sister-in-law deserved to have his
head cut and his muscles bruised. Nevertheless the matter was too
serious to be passed over without notice. The doctor could not say that
the unfortunate nobleman had received no permanent injury;--and the
sergeant had not an opportunity of dealing with deans and marquises
every day of his life. The doctor remained with his august patient and
had him put to bed, while the Dean and the sergeant together went off
in a cab to the police-office which lies in the little crowded streets
between the crooked part of Regent Street and Piccadilly. Here
d