cotland, your ladyship," replied Sir John, his eyes
transfixing her. "Ere now 'tis ancient history."

"Fie, Sir John," said Lady Betty, laughing wickedly, "to desert so
sweet a creature. So lovely--and so _rich_! Men are not wise as they
once were."

Sir John drew nearer to her and spoke low. "Your ladyship makes a butt
of me," he said. And 'twas so ordained by Fate, at this moment when the
worst of him seethed within his breast, and was ripest for mad evil,
Sir Christopher Crowell came bustling into the apartment, full of
exultant hilarity and good wine which he had been partaking of in the
banqueting-hall with friends.

"Good Lord!" he cried, having spoke with Lady Betty; "what ails thee,
Jack? Thy very face is a killjoy."

"'Tis repentance, perhaps," said Lady Betty. "We are reproaching him
with deserting Mistress Beaton--who had even a fortune."

Sir Christopher glanced from Sir John to her ladyship and burst forth
into a big guffaw, his convivialities having indeed robbed him of
discretion.

"He desert her!" said he. "She jilted him and took her fortune to a
Marquis! 'Twas thine own fault, too, Jack. Hadst thou been even a
decent rake she would have had thee."

"By God!" cried Sir John, starting and turning livid; and then catching
a sight of the delight in my Lady Betty's face, who had set out to
enrage him before her company, he checked himself and broke into a
contemptuous, short laugh.

"These be country manners, Sir Christopher," he said. "In
Gloucestershire bumpers are tossed off early, and a banquet added turns
a man's head and makes him garrulous."

"Ecod!" said Sir Christopher, grinning. "A nice fellow he is to twit a
man with the bottle. Myself, I've seen him drunk for three days."

Whereupon there took place a singular change in Sir John Oxon's look.
His face had been so full of rage but a moment ago that, at Sir Chris's
second sally, Lady Betty had moved slightly in some alarm. Town manners
were free, but not quite so free as those of the country, and Sir John
was known to be an ill-tempered man. If the two gentlemen had
quarrelled about her ladyship's own charms 'twould have been a
different matter, but to come to an encounter over a mere drinking-bout
would be a vulgar, ignominious thing in which she had no mind to be
mixed up.

"Lord, Sir Christopher," she exclaimed, tapping him with her fan.
"Three days! For shame!"

But though Sir John had started 'twas not in rage. Three days
caro