l, what is there more common than for a married
man to neglect his wife? He only did unconsciously and thoughtlessly
what heaps of men do deliberately."

"You are making me angry," said Mrs. Lavender in a severe voice.

"I don't think it fair to expect men to be demigods," Ingram said
carelessly. "I never met any demigods myself: they don't live in my
neighborhood. Perhaps if I had had some experience of a batch of them, I
should be more censorious of other people. If you set up Frank for a
Bayard, is it his fault or yours?"

"I am not going to be talked out of my common sense, and me on my
death-bed," said the old lady impatiently, and yet with some secret hope
that Ingram would go on talking and amuse her. "I won't have you say he
is anything but a stupid and ungrateful boy, who married a wife far too
good for him. He is worse than that--he is much worse than that; but as
this may be my death-bed, I will keep a civil tongue in my head."

"I thought you didn't like his wife very much?" said Ingram.

"I am not bound to like her because I think badly of him, am I? She was
not a bad sort of girl, after all--temper a little stiff, perhaps; but
she was honest. It did one's eyes good to look at her bright face. Yes,
she was a good sort of creature in her way. But when she ran off from
him, why didn't she come to me?"

"Perhaps you never encouraged her."

"Encouragement! Where ought a married woman go to but to her husband's
relatives? If she cannot stay with him, let her take the next best
substitute. It was her duty to come to me."

"If Sheila had fancied it to be her duty, she would have come here at
any cost."

"What do you mean, Mr. Ingram?" said Mrs. Lavender severely.

"Well, supposing she didn't like you--" he was beginning to say
cautiously, when she sharply interrupted him:

"She didn't like me, eh?"

"I said nothing of the kind. I was about to say that if she had thought
it her duty to come here, she would have come in any circumstances."

"She might have done worse. A young woman risks a great deal in running
away from her husband's home. People will talk. Who is to make people
believe just the version of the story that the husband or wife would
prefer?"

"And what does Sheila care," said Ingram with a hot flush in his face,
"for the belief of a lot of idle gossips and slanderers?"

"My dear Mr. Ingram," said the old lady, "you are not a woman, and you
don't know the bother one has to look after