a microscopic character, and
the only spark of regard which he entertained for Rosie was not as his
little child, but as his future heiress. Nor was he at all troubled by
the sufferings of Clarice. Women were always crying about something;
they were decided hindrances and vexations in a man's way; in fact, the
existence of women at all, except to see to a man's comforts, and amuse
his leisure, was, in Sir Vivian's eyes, an unfortunate mistake in the
arrangements of Providence. He mourned first the good opinion which
people had of him, and which, by the way, was a much smaller package
than Sir Vivian thought it; and secondly, the far more important
disturbance of the excellent opinion which he had of himself. He could
not rid himself of the unpleasant conviction that a little more patience
and amiability on his part would have prevented all this disagreeable
affair, though he would not for the world have acknowledged this
conviction to Clarice. That was what he thought it--a disagreeable
affair. It was the purest accident, he said to himself, and might have
happened to any one. At the same time, something, which did not often
trouble Vivian, deep down in his inner man, distinctly told him that
such an accident would never have happened to the Earl or Sir Ademar.
Vivian only growled at his conscience when it gave him that faint prick.
He was so accustomed to bid it be quiet, that it had almost ceased to
give him any hints, and the pricking was very slight.

"A disagreeable business!" he said, inwardly; "a most disagreeable
business. Why did not Clarice attend to her duties better? It was her
duty to keep that child from bothering me. What are women good for but
to keep their children out of mischief, and to see that their husbands'
paths through life are free from every thorn and pebble?"

Sir Vivian had reached this point when one of the Earl's pages brought
him a message. His master wished his attendance in his private
sitting-room. Vivian inwardly anathematised the Earl, the page, Heliet
(as a witness), Rosie (as the offender), but above all, as the head and
front of all his misery, Clarice. He was not the less disposed to
anathemas when he found Sir Ademar, Heliet, Clarice, and Master Franco,
the physician, assembled to receive him with the Earl. It rasped him
further to perceive that they were all exceedingly grave, though how he
could have expected any of them to look hilarious it would be difficult