, forbade her ever taking another
drive with a stranger "the longest day she lived," and would certainly
have caned the offender with unparliamentary fervor, instead of being
"reasonable" and letting the affair drop, had he known where to find him.

What Mr. Drummond did was to walk into Kalsing and put up at a
boarding-house there, where he spent the evening glowering into vacancy
blackly enough, and showed his high breeding and respect for the other
boarders by taking off his shoes in the parlor and sitting with his
stockinged feet propped up on a chair in front of him while he gave
himself up to his reflections,--bitter thoughts of the past in which he
had been an English gentleman, desperate plans for his future as a
_chevalier d'industrie,_ fierce abuse of Americans in general and the
Browns in particular, culminating in a fixed resolve to leave "this
beastly hole" next day; which was happily carried out.

Mr. Ramsay, offended, held aloof for a little while; but, getting a note
from Mr. Brown couched in few words, and those to the effect that his
warning had been acted on and Mr. Drummond dismissed, he called next day
at the house, assured Mr. Brown with earnestness that his cousin was "a
precious rascal," gave some particulars of his shady career, and took up
the threads of his intimacy again, unvexed by any such ideas as that he
was at all responsible for or could be affected by his kinsman's
disreputable behavior. Mr. Brown concealed from him that he had lost some
money by Mr. Drummond. Bijou imagined that he must be "feeling dreadfully
about it," and took great pains not to say anything that could wound his
imaginary susceptibilities as the relative of a _mauvais sujet._ But the
simple truth was that, once assured that respectable people were not being
deluded or cheated by his cousin, Mr. Ramsay had no further sensitiveness
on the subject. The Browns kept what he had told them even from the
Ketchums, only to hear him announce in all assemblies that a cousin of his
was "goin' about over here,--an awful swindler and 'leg,'--and that the
best thing people could do would be to give him the widest sort of berth
until he got himself into the penitentiary, as he certainly would,--at
least it was quite on the cards," smiling in cheerful enjoyment of the
possibility. Entertainments were going on all the while in the
neighborhood, and he had ample opportunities of advertising the fact, all
of which he improved, while a