deanery.

He hurried up to dress as soon as he reached the house, with a word of
apology as to being late, and then found her in the drawing room.

"Papa," she said, "I do like Mrs. Montacute Jones."

"So do I, my dear, because she is good-humoured."

"But she is so good-natured also! She has been here again to-day and
wants me and George to go down to Scotland in August. I should so like
it."

"What will George say?"

"Of course he won't go; and of course I shan't. But that doesn't make
it the less good-natured. She wishes all her set to think that what
happened the other night doesn't mean anything."

"I'm afraid he won't consent."

"I know he won't. He wouldn't know what to do with himself. He hates a
house full of people. And now tell me what the Marquis said." But
dinner was announced, and the Dean was not forced to answer this
question immediately.

"Now, papa," she said again, as soon as the coffee was brought and the
servant was gone, "do tell me what my most noble brother-in-law wanted
to say to you?"

That he certainly would not tell. "Your brother-in-law, my dear,
behaved about as badly as a man could behave."

"Oh, dear! I am so sorry!"

"We have to be sorry,--both of us. And your husband will be sorry." He
was so serious that she hardly knew how to speak to him. "I cannot tell
you everything; but he insulted me, and I was forced to--strike him."

"Strike him! Oh, papa!"

"Bear with me, Mary. In all things I think well of you, and do you try
to think well of me."

"Dear papa! I will. I do. I always did."

"Anything he might have said of myself I could have borne. He could
have applied no epithet to me which, I think, could even have ruffled
me. But he spoke evil of you." While he was sitting there he made up
his mind that he would tell her as much as that, though he had before
almost resolved that he would not speak to her of herself. But she must
hear something of the truth, and better that she should hear it from
his than from other lips. She turned very pale, but did not immediately
make any reply. "Then I was full of wrath," he continued. "I did not
even attempt to control myself; but I took him by the throat and flung
him violently to the ground. He fell upon the grate, and it may be that
he has been hurt. Had the fall killed him he would have deserved it. He
had courage to wound a father in his tenderest part, only because that
father was a clergyman. His belief in a black coat wil