re on his possession of the
instincts, of the mental and moral tone, which are called gentlemanly.
It really hurt him to think that anyone could plausibly assail his
claims in this respect.

When he had been a week at Rivenoak, he again wrote to Mrs. Woolstan.
Of her failure to answer his last letter, he said nothing. She had of
course received the _Hollingford Express_, with the report of his
speech on the 20th. How did she like it? Could she suggest any
improvement? She knew that he valued her opinion. "Write," he
concluded, "as soon as you have leisure. I shall be here, I think, for
another week or so. By the bye, I have taken to cycling, and I fancy it
will be physically good for me."

To this communication, Mrs. Woolstan replied She began with a few
formal commendations of his speech. "You are so kind as to ask if I can
suggest any way in which it could have been improved, but of course I
know that that is only a polite phrase. I should not venture to
criticise anything of yours _now_, even if I had the presumption to
think that I was capable of saying anything worth your attention. I am
sure you need no advice from me, nor from anyone else, now that you
have the advantage of Miss Bride's counsels. I regret very much that I
have so slight an acquaintance with that lady, but Mrs. Toplady tells
me that she is admirably suited to be your companion, and to encourage
and help you in your career. I shall have the pleasure of watching you
from a distance, and of sincerely wishing you happiness as well as
success."

The formal style of this letter, so different from Iris's ordinary
effusions, made sufficient proof of the mood in which it was written.
Dyce bit his lips over it. He had foreseen that Mrs. Woolstan would
hear of his engagement, but had hoped it would not be just yet. There
was for the present no help; in her eyes he stood condemned of some
thing more than indelicacy. Fortunately, she was not the kind of
woman--he felt sure--to be led into any vulgar retaliation. All he
could do was to write a very brief note, in which he expressed a hope
of seeing her very soon. "I shall have much to tell you," he added, and
tried to think that Iris would accept this as a significant promise.

After all, were not man and woman, disguise the fact as one might,
condemned by nature to mutual hostility? Useless to attempt rational
methods with beings to whom reason was fundamentally repugnant. Dyce
fell from mortification int