added, "and unsay
it all--unsay it all and give no reason, and it shall be as though it
were never said." Then she seized him by the arm and looked
passionately up into his eyes. Mr. Houghton moved restlessly in his
chair and coughed aloud. "He'll be off again in half a moment," said
Mrs. Houghton. Then he was silent, and she was silent, looking at him.
And he heard a word or two come clearly from the back drawing-room.
"You will, Jack; won't you, dear Jack?"

The ridicule of the thing touched even him. "I think I had better go,"
he said.

"Then go!"

"Good-night, Mrs. Houghton."

"I will not say good-night. I will never speak to you again. You are
not worth speaking to. You are false. I knew that men could be false,
but not so false as you. Even that young fellow in there has some
heart. He loves your--darling wife, and will be true to his love." She
was a very devil in her wickedness. He started as though he had been
stung, and rushed inside for his hat. "Halloa, Germain, are you going?"
said the man of the house, rousing himself for the moment.

"Yes, I am going. Where did I leave my hat?"

"You put it on the piano," said Mrs. Houghton in her mildest voice,
standing at the window. Then he seized his hat and went off. "What a
very stupid man he is," she said, as she entered the room.

"A very good sort of fellow," said Mr. Houghton.

"He's a gentleman all round," said Jack De Baron. Jack knew pretty well
how the land lay and could guess what had occurred.

"I am not so sure of that," said the lady. "If he were a gentleman as
you say all round, he would not be so much afraid of his elder brother.
He has come up to town now merely because Brotherton sent to him, and
when he went to Scumberg's the Marquis would not see him. He is just
like his sisters,--priggish, punctilious and timid."

"He has said something nasty to you," remarked her husband, "or you
would not speak of him like that."

She had certainly said something very nasty to him. As he returned to
his club he kept on repeating to himself her last words;--"He loves
your darling wife." Into what a mass of trouble had he not fallen
through the Dean's determination that his daughter should live in
London! He was told on all sides that this man was in love with his
wife, and he knew,--he had so much evidence for knowing,--that his wife
liked the man. And now he was separated from his wife, and she could
go whither her father chose to take her. For au