f the rival
of Lady Henry. I never heard anything so preposterous--so--so indecent!
She shows no proper sense, and, as for you, I deeply regret you should
have been brought into any contact with such a disgraceful story."

"Freddie!" The Duchess went into a helpless, half-hysterical fit of
laughter.

But the Duke merely expanded, as it seemed, still further--to his utmost
height and bulk. "Oh, dear," thought the Duchess, in despair, "now he is
going to be like his mother!" Her strictly Evangelical mother-in-law,
with whom the Duke had made his bachelor home for many years, had been
the scourge of her early married life; and though for Freddie's sake she
had shed a few tears over her death, eighteen months before this date,
the tears--as indeed the Duke had thought at the time--had been only too
quickly dried.

There could be no question about it, the Duke was painfully like his
mother as he replied:

"I fear that your education, Evelyn, has led you to take such things far
more lightly than you ought. I am old-fashioned. Illegitimacy with me
_does_ carry a stigma, and the sins of the fathers _are_ visited upon
the children. At any rate, we who occupy a prominent social place have
no right to do anything which may lead others to think lightly of God's
law. I am sorry to speak plainly, Evelyn. I dare say you don't like
these sentiments, but you know, at least, that I am quite honest in
expressing them."

The Duke turned to her, not without dignity. He was and had been from
his boyhood a person of irreproachable morals--earnest and religious
according to his lights, a good son, husband, and father. His wife
looked at him with mingled feelings.

"Well, all I know is," she said, passionately beating her little foot on
the carpet before her, "that, by all accounts, the only thing to do with
Colonel Delaney was to run away from him."

The Duke shrugged his shoulders.

"You don't expect me to be much moved by a remark of that kind? As to
this lady, your story does not affect me in her favor in the smallest
degree. She has had her education; Lord Lackington gives her one hundred
pounds a year; if she is a self-respecting woman she will look after
herself. I _don't_ want to have her here, and I beg you won't invite
her. A couple of nights, perhaps--I don't mind that--but not
for longer."

"Oh, as to that, you may be very sure she won't stay here unless you're
very particularly nice to her. There'll be plenty of people