d! she _was_ a bad un! up to more
tricks than any other I ever knew. She used to--" (here followed a
description of some of her peculiar practices).

"I wish you would not tell me these things," Beth remonstrated.

But he only laughed. "You know you're amused," he said. "It's just
your conventional affectation that makes you pretend to object. That's
the way women drive their husbands elsewhere for amusement; they won't
take a proper intelligent interest in life, so there's nothing to talk
to them about. I agree with the advanced party. They're always
preaching that women should know the world. Women who _do_ know the
world have no nonsense about them, and are a jolly sight better
company than your starched Puritans who pretend to know nothing. It's
the most interesting side of life after all, and the most instructive;
and I wonder at your want of intelligence, Beth. You shouldn't be
afraid to know the natural history of humanity."

"Nor am I," Beth answered quietly; "nor the natural--or
unnatural--depravity either, which is what you really mean, I believe.
But knowing it, and delighting in it as a subject of conversation, are
two very different things. Jesting about that side of life affects me
like mud on a clean coat. I resent being splashed with it, and try to
get rid of it, but unfortunately it sticks and stains."

"Oh, you're quite right," Dan answered unctuously. "It's just shocking
the stories that are told--" and for the rest of the way he discoursed
about morals, illustrating his meaning as he proceeded with anecdotes
of the choicest description.

When they arrived at Beg House, they found the company more mixed than
Dan had anticipated. Dr. and Mrs. Carne were there, Mr. and Mrs.
Jeffreys, and Mr., Mrs., and Miss Petterick. Mr. Petterick was a
solicitor of bumptious manners and doubtful reputation, whom the whole
county hated, but tolerated because of his wealth and shrewdness,
either of which they liked to be in a position to draw upon if
necessary. But besides these townspeople, there were Sir George and
Lady Galbraith, Mr. and Mrs. Kilroy of Ilverthorpe, and Mrs. Orton
Beg, a widowed daughter-in-law of Lady Beg's.

Dr. Maclure immediately made up to Sir George Galbraith, who was also
a medical man, and of great repute in his own line. He was a county
magnate besides, and a man of wealth and importance by reason of a
baronetcy somewhat unexpectedly inherited, and a beautiful
country-seat. He continue