' of a
little whistle of a fella like you.' Poor lad! he couldn't stop for his
luck! Did ye ask me to take wine, Mr. Wilfrud? I'll be cryin', else, as
a widde should, ye know!"

Frequent administrations of wine arrested the tears of Mrs. Chump, until
it is possible that the fulness of many a checked flow caused her
to redden and talk slightly at random. At the first mention of their
father's name, the ladies went out from the room. It was foolish,
for they might have watched the effect of certain vinous innuendoes
addressed to Wilfrid's apprehensiveness; but they were weakened and
humbled, and everything they did was foolish. From the fact that they
offended their keen critical taste, moreover, they were targets to the
shaft that wounds more fatally than all. No ridicule knocks the strength
out of us so thoroughly as our own.

Whether or not he guessed their condition favourable for his plans,
Wilfrid did not give them time to call back their scattered powers. At
the hour of eleven he sent for Arabella to come to him in the library.
The council upstairs permitted Arabella to go, on the understanding
that she was prepared for hostilities, and ready to tear the mask from
Wilfrid's face.

He commenced, without a shadow of circumlocution, and in a
matter-of-fact way, as if all respect for the peculiar genius of the
house of Pole had vanished: "I sent for you to talk a word or two about
this woman, who, I see, troubles you a little. I'm sorry she's in the
house."

"Indeed!" said Arabella.

"I'm sorry she's in the house, not for my sake, but for yours, since
the proximity does not seem to... I needn't explain. It comes of your
eternal consultations. You are the eldest. Why not act according to your
judgement, which is generally sound? You listen to Adela, young as she
is; or a look of Cornelia's leads you. The result is the sort of scene I
saw this afternoon. I confess it has changed my opinion of you; it has,
I grieve to say it. This woman is your father's guest; you can't hurt
her so much as you hurt him, if you misbehave to her. You can't openly
object to her and not cast a slur upon him. There is the whole case.
He has insisted, and you must submit. You should have fought the battle
before she came."

"She is here, owing to a miserable misconception," said Arabella.

"Ah! she is here, however. That is the essential, as your old governess
Madame Timpan would have said."

"Nor can a protest against coarseness be