corner of the window,
and spoke without directly looking at Mrs. Chump; so that she was some
time in getting to understand the preliminary, "Madam, you must leave
this house." But presently her chin dropped; and after feeble efforts to
interpose an exclamation, she sat quiet--overcome by the deliberate
gravity of his manner, and motioning despairingly with her head, to
relieve the swarm of unborn figure-less ideas suggested by his passing
speech. The ladies were ranged like tribunal shapes. It could not be said
of souls so afflicted that they felt pleasure in the scene; but to assist
in the administration of a rigorous justice is sweet to them that are
smarting. They scarcely approved his naked statement of things when he
came to Mrs. Chump's particular aspiration in the household--viz., to
take a station and the dignity of their name. The effect he produced
satisfied them that the measure was correct. Her back gave a sharp bend,
as if an eternal support had snapped. "Oh! ye hit hard," she moaned.

"I tell you kindly that we (who, you will acknowledge, must count for
something here) do not sanction any change that revolutionizes our
domestic relations," said Wilfrid; while Mrs. Chump heaved and rolled on
the swell of the big words like an overladen boat. "You have only to
understand so much, and this--that if we resist it, as we do, you, by
continuing to contemplate it, are provoking a contest which will probably
injure neither you nor me, but will be death to ham in his present
condition."

Mrs. Chump was heard to mumble that she alone knew the secret of
restoring him to health, and that he was rendered peaky and poky only by
people supposing him so.

"An astonishin' thing!" she burst out. "If I kiss 'm and say 'Poor Pole!'
he's poor Pole on the spot. And, if onnly I--"

But Wilfrid's stern voice flowed over her. "Listen, madam, and let this
be finished between us. You know well that when a man has children, he
may wish to call another woman wife--a woman not their mother; but the
main question is, will his children consent to let her take that place?
We are of one mind, and will allow no one--no one--to assume that
position. And now, there's an end. We'll talk like friends. I have only
spoken in that tone that you might clearly comprehend me on an important
point. I know you entertain a true regard for my father, and it is that
belief which makes me--"

"Friends!" cried Mrs. Chump, getting courage from the savou