lainly.

"Let me tell you," she said, "that if you expect anything of the sort
from Alexander Quisante, you'll find yourself mistaken."

"I don't know that I agree with you there, my dear," said the Dean,
entering his usual _caveat_. "I think very likely Mr. Quisante would
be willing to do the proper thing if it were pointed out to him."

"Pointed out!" murmured Sir Winterton, raising his brows. Did gentlemen
need to have the proper thing pointed out to them? Did they not see it
for themselves and do it? Nay, one might look for more than the mere
naked proper thing; from a gentleman the handsome thing was to be
expected, and that of his own motion. There could, in Sir Winterton's
view, be no doubt of what was in this case the handsome thing.

Unhappily, there is no subject on which greater divergence of opinion
exists than that of the proper thing to be done under given
circumstances. Here was Sir Winterton holding one view; Japhet Williams
held another, and it is to be feared that a section of the inhabitants of
Henstead adopted a third. Sir Winterton's cry was honour, Japhet's was
duty; the inhabitants would have differed rather even among themselves as
to how to describe their motive; party spirit, curiosity, the zest of a
personal question, interest in a promising quarrel, mere mischief, all
had a hand in producing the applause which greeted Japhet when he rose
the next evening and with absolute imperturbability repeated the same
question as nearly as possible in the same words. Sir Winterton's answer
was not in the same words, but entirely to the same effect. "I've
answered that question once, and I won't answer it again," he said. Then
came the tumult, and after that a dull unenthusiastic ending, and the
drive off through a grinning crowd, which enjoyed Sir Winterton's fury
and added to it by a few hateful cries of "Where's Susy Sinnett?" From
the outskirts of the town till his own gates were reached Sir Winterton
did not speak to his wife. Then he turned to her and said very
courteously but most decisively,

"Marion dear, you will oblige me by not accompanying me to any more
meetings at present and by not visiting the town just now. I don't choose
to expose you to any more such scenes. I can't teach these fellows to
respect a lady's presence, but I can protect my wife by ensuring her
absence." He looked very chivalrous and very handsome as he made this
little speech. But his wife's heart sank; such an attitud