tion he took up less open to the charge of
prejudice; he disliked Octon intensely, but he would not rest his case
on the weak foundation of an angry temper.

"I'm quite content to accept Mr. Austin's view of the facts, which he
has given us so clearly and so impartially. Where does his view lead?
Why to this--Not only was Mr. Octon inexcusably violent at the end, but
he was the original aggressor. He did not, Mr. Austin is convinced, mean
to cause danger to Lady Aspenick, but he did mean to cause her
vexation--in fact to offer her an affront. In my opinion anything on her
part that followed is imputable to his own fault, and he had no title to
resent it. I base my decision not on Lady Aspenick's account, but on Mr.
Austin's independent testimony; and I say that Mr. Octon behaved as no
gentleman and as no good neighbor should."

Jenny had listened to all the stories in silence, and in silence also
she heard Fillingford's summing-up. Now she looked at him and asked
briefly, "What follows?"

"It follows that he must be cut," interposed Aspenick in dogged anger.

"We have a right to protect ourselves--above all the ladies of our
families--from the chance of such occurrences. They mustn't be exposed
to them if we can help it; they certainly need not and must not be
exposed to the unpleasantness of meeting the man who causes them. We
have a right to act on that line--and I, for one, feel bound to act on
it, Miss Driver."

"Not a man in the place will do anything else," declared Aspenick.

But I was wondering what Jenny would do. Almost without disguise they
were presenting to her an ultimatum. They were saying, "If you want him,
you can't have us. We can't come where he comes. Is he to go on coming
to Breysgate? Is he to go on using your park?" She did not like
dictation--nor did she like sending her friends away. To send them away
on dictation--would she do that? Or would she fall into one of her
rages, bid them all go hang, and throw in her lot with boycotted Octon?
She turned to me.

"Do you agree with what these gentlemen say?" she asked.

In the end I liked Octon or, at any rate, found him very interesting,
and I was therefore ready, for myself, to put up with his tempers and
his tantrums. People who did not like him nor find him interesting could
not be asked to do that. And he stood condemned on my own evidence.

"They are quite within their rights," I had to answer.

She was not in a rage; she was anxious a