In another part of the park Miss Mallowcoid, Agatha, and Cleopatra were
walking arm-in-arm. Miss Mallowcoid, always stirred to some act of
self-sacrificing devotion by the sight of genuine illness, was making it
her duty to give her niece a little healthy exercise before going to
bed. Cleopatra would have given a good deal to escape this determined
altruism on her aunt's part, but Miss Mallowcoid was not so easily
thwarted in the practice of her virtues.

Meanwhile, Denis, surrounded by the rest of the party, was indulging in
a form of amusement that he had popularised of late among the younger
members of the two households. It consisted in a sort of uneven
cock-fight between himself and Gerald Tribe, on the question of
religion, and it was punctuated by roars of laughter from Leonetta,
Vanessa, Guy Tyrrell, and even Stephen Fearwell; while the unfortunate
Mrs. Tribe, feeling that her husband was being made to look ridiculous
for the edification of the rest of the party, would repeatedly interrupt
the proceedings by urging her spouse to "come to bed." This, however,
he always resolutely refused to do, much to the satisfaction of
everybody present; and the unequal contest would be continued.

Sometimes the sensitive and sensible woman would interpolate a remark
which considerably discomfited her husband's aggressor; and then, hoping
to bring the controversy quickly to an end on this note of triumph,
would tug vigorously at his coat sleeve. But Incandescent Gerald, hot,
excited, beaten, and indignant, was not to be lured away to the marital
bed while he still smarted from his opponent's blows, and endeavouring
ever afresh to turn the tide of battle, would remain to blunder on into
another rout.

At one moment on the evening of the day of Cleopatra's first fall, when
the laughter against him rose too high, the moon revealed to Stephen
Fearwell that tears of indignation were welling in Mrs. Tribe's eyes;
and then thinking of Miss Mallowcoid, and of how this one holiday in the
year, away from the hard spinster's cold tyranny, was being spoilt for
her by these evening debates, he rose smartly to his feet, clapped the
Incandescent Gerald on the back, and tugged at his collar.

"Look here, sir," he cried, "you're beginning to interest me in this
Inner Light of yours. Come for a walk and tell me more about it. Perhaps
Mrs. Tribe will join us?"

"Oh, don't take them away!" cried Guy Tyrrell, while Leonetta and
Vanessa mo