reason for
it. What is it?"

Arrogantly Mrs. Austen took it up. "There is no reason for your raising
your voice, at any rate. As for the things, they ought to be obvious. In
addition to habits and customs, very suitable in Wall Street no doubt,
but not otherwise appealing, Margaret has found you a bit rough,
high-tempered, domineering for all I know to the contrary, and----"

That's a damned lie, thought Lennox, who aggressively cut in: "Margaret
never found me anything of the kind. What is more I will thank you to
understand that I will not accept this dismissal--if it be one--from
you."

There is a show of decency that is due to any woman. But the veneer of
civilisation is very thin. From beneath it, the potential troglodyte,
that lurks in us all, is ready enough to erupt. Ready and eager then, he
was visible in Lennox' menacing eyes, manifest in his threatening voice.

Mrs. Austen saw the brute, saw rather that little, if anything,
restrained Lennox from jumping up, banging about, hunting for Margaret's
room, entering there and catechising her violently. Margaret was ill but
never too ill to tell the truth. Once he learned that, there was the fat
in the fire.

She had no time to lose. From the wardrobe of the actress that she was,
she snatched at an oleaginous mask and with the mucilage of it smiled at
him.

"Why, of course not. Not for a moment would I have you accept it from
me. I never dreamed of such a thing. It wouldn't be right. Margaret
shall tell you herself. She would be here now, but the poor child had
such a wretched night. You never had neuralgia, have you? At her age I
was a martyr to it. I remember I took something that ended in 'ine.'
Yesterday I suggested it but the doctor would not hear of it. Said she
needed building up. Spoke of her just as though she were a town out
West; so unsympathetic I thought him, but of course I did not say so. He
might have charged extra and he is expensive enough as it is, and always
so ready to talk about his own affairs, just like my dentist. I told him
once--the dentist I mean--that I really could not afford to pay him
thirty dollars an hour to hear about his wife and I don't think he liked
it. I know I didn't when I got his bill. But where was I? Oh, yes.
To-morrow or the next day, as soon as Margaret is the least bit better,
you will be sure to have a line from her and if you do not, and you care
to, you must certainly look in. For you must always regard us as