had fought it, y'know, instead of the men."

"Quite so!" said the easy-going Edward "Squaws! Mutilation! Yes!" and he
laughed at his little joke, but he laughed alone.

I turned to Juno. "Speaking of mutilation, I trust your nephew is better
this evening."

I was rejoiced by receiving a glare in response. But still more joy was
to come.

"An apology ought to help cure him a lot," observed the Briton.

Juno employed her policy of not hearing him.

"Indeed, I trust that your nephew is in less pain," said the poetess.

Juno was willing to answer this. "The injuries, thank you, are the
merest trifles--all that such a light-weight could inflict." And
she shrugged her shoulders to indicate the futility of young John's
pugilism.

"But," the surprised Briton interposed, "I thought you said your nephew
was too feeble to eat steak or hear poetry."

Juno could always stem the eddy of her own contradictions--but she did
raise her voice a little. "I fancy, sir, that Doctor Beaugarcon knows
what he is talking about."

"Have they apologized yet?" inquired the male honeymooner from the
up-country.

"My nephew, sir, nobly consented to shake hands this afternoon. He did
it entirely out of respect for Mr. Mayrant's family, who coerced him
into this tardy reparation, and who feel unable to recognize him since
his treasonable attitude in the Custom House."

"Must be fairly hard to coerce a chap you can't recognize," said the
Briton.

An et cetera now spoke to the honeymoon bride from the up-country: "I
heard Doctor Beaugarcon say he was coming to visit you this evening."

"Yais," assented the bride. "Doctor Beaugarcon is my mother's fourth
cousin."

Juno now took--most unwisely, as it proved--a vindictive turn at me. "I
knew that your friend, Mr. Mayrant, was intemperate," she began.

I don't think that Mrs. Trevise had any intention to ring for Daphne at
this point--her curiosity was too lively; but Juno was going to risk no
such intervention, and I saw her lay a precautionary hand heavily down
over the bell. "But," she continued, "I did not know that Mr. Mayrant
was a gambler."

"Have you ever seen him intemperate?" I asked.

"That would be quite needless," Juno returned. "And of the gambling I
have ocular proof, since I found him, cards, counters, and money, with
my sick nephew. He had actually brought cards in his pocket."

"I suppose," said the Briton, "your nephew was too sick to resist him."

The male honeym