eigled the boy into marrying her
niece. To prove that she had not, Mrs. Newbolt told the bride and groom
that she would have nothing more to do with Eleanor! It was when the
fifty-four minutes had lengthened into three days that they had gone,
after supper, to see her. Eleanor, supremely satisfied, with no doubts,
now about the wisdom of what she had done, was nervous only as to the
effect of her aunt's temper upon Maurice; and he, full of a bravado of
indifference which confessed the nervousness it denied, was anxious only
as to the effect of the inevitable reproaches upon Eleanor. Their five
horrid minutes of waiting in the parlor for Mrs. Newbolt's ponderous
step on the stairs, was broken by Bingo's dashing, with ear-piercing
barks, into the room: Eleanor took him on her knee, and Maurice, giving
the little black nose a kindly squeeze, looked around in pantomimic
horror of the obese upholstery, and Rogers groups on the tops of
bookcases full of expensively bound and unread classics.

"How have you stood it?" he said to his wife; adding, under his breath,
"If she's nasty to you, I'll wring her neck!"

She was very nasty. "I'm not a party to it," Mrs. Newbolt said; she sat,
panting, on a deeply cushioned sofa, and her wheezy voice came through
quivering double chins; her protruding pale eyes snapped with anger. "I
shall tell you exactly what I think of you, Eleanor, for, as my dear
mother used to say, if I have a virtue it is candor; I think you are a
puffect fool. As for Mr. Curtis, I no more thought of protectin' him
than I would think of protectin' a baby in a perambulator from its
nursemaid! Bingo was sick at his stomach this mornin'. You've ruined
the boy's life." Eleanor cringed, but Maurice was quite steady:

"We will not discuss it, if you please. I will merely say that I dragged
Eleanor into it; I _made_ her marry me. She refused me repeatedly. Come,
Eleanor."

He rose, but Mrs. Newbolt, getting heavily on to her small feet, and
talking all the time, walked over to the doorway and blocked their
retreat. "You needn't think I'll do anything for you!" she said to her
niece; "I shall write to Mr. Houghton and tell him so. I shall tell him
he isn't any more disgusted with this business than I am. And you can
take Bingo with you!"

"I came to get him," Eleanor said, faintly.

"Come, Eleanor," Maurice said; and Mrs. Newbolt, puffing and talking,
had to make way for them. As they went out of the door she called,