answer. Mr Lupton,
with whom Grasslough was dining, also sat expectant. Dolly and
Nidderdale were both silent.

It was the fear of this that had kept Sir Felix away from the club.
Grasslough, as he had told himself, was just the fellow to ask such a
question,--ill-natured, insolent, and obtrusive. But the question
demanded an answer of some kind. 'Yes,' said he; 'a fellow attacked me
in the street, coming behind me when I had a girl with me. He didn't
get much the best of it though.'

'Oh;--didn't he?' said Grasslough. 'I think, upon the whole, you know,
you're right about going abroad.'

'What business is it of yours?' asked the baronet.

'Well;--as the club is being broken up, I don't know that it is very
much the business of any of us.'

'I was speaking to my friends, Lord Nidderdale and Mr Longestaffe, and
not to you.'

'I quite appreciate the advantage of the distinction,' said Lord
Grasslough, 'and am sorry for Lord Nidderdale and Mr Longestaffe.'

'What do you mean by that?' said Sir Felix, rising from his chair. His
present opponent was not horrible to him as had been John Crumb, as
men in clubs do not now often knock each others' heads or draw swords
one upon another.

'Don't let's have a quarrel here,' said Mr Lupton. 'I shall leave the
room if you do.'

'If we must break up, let us break up in peace and quietness,' said
Nidderdale.

'Of course, if there is to be a fight, I'm good to go out with
anybody,' said Dolly. 'When there's any beastly thing to be done, I've
always got to do it. But don't you think that kind of thing is a
little slow?'

'Who began it?' said Sir Felix, sitting down again. Whereupon Lord
Grasslough, who had finished his dinner, walked out of the room. 'That
fellow is always wanting to quarrel.'

'There's one comfort, you know,' said Dolly. 'It wants two men to make
a quarrel.'

'Yes; it does,' said Sir Felix, taking this as a friendly observation;
'and I'm not going to be fool enough to be one of them.'

'Oh, yes, I meant it fast enough,' said Grasslough afterwards up in
the card-room. The other men who had been together had quickly
followed him, leaving Sir Felix alone, and they had collected
themselves there not with the hope of play, but thinking that they
would be less interrupted than in the smoking-room. 'I don't suppose
we shall ever any of us be here again, and as he did come in I thought
I would tell him my mind.'

'What's the use of taking such a lot of tro