Miss Wentworth's Idea.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 35, 29 August 1891, Page 310

Miss Wentworth's Idea.

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W.E. NORRIS,

i wl Author of ‘Matrimony,' ‘My Friend Jim,' ■Tire Rogue,’ ‘A Bachelor’s Blunder? AJm. _ _. ... ... .

CHAPTER X. U go straight to head quarters for information sounds like a wise principle to act upon ; and indeed the system is said to have been adopted with success by certain eminent statesmen and diplomatists. Yet, if the truth were known, it might possibly be fonnd that the statesmen have not wholly disdained other means of arriving at their ends, because, unfortunately, the desire of the candid inquirer for a plain statement of facts is not always shared at head-quarters. No one, therefore,

will be surprised to hear that Sylvia, in spite of her bold resolution to interrogate Sir Harry Brewster as to the circumstances connected with his divorce, knew very little more about them at the end of three weeks than she had done at the beginning. She did, indeed, summon up courage to put a point-blank question to him, but his reply was such as to render further questions almost impossible. It was too true, he said, that he was a divorced man, but Miss Sylvia would understand that he could not talk much to her upon such a subject. He might add that it was an excessively painful one to him. After that, what more could she do ? She ventured upon an occasional hint ; but these he ignored, and finally she said to herself that she really did not care to pry into matters which were none of her business. The past was past and hail better be forgotten ; the present was quite enjoyable enough to content her. If the present had not contented her no blame could have attached to Sir Harry Brewster, who was indefatigable in devising schemes for her amusement. Although he did not come very often to the house, he contrived to°make arrangements for meeting Sylvia almost every day of the week, and what was still more clever of him was that he also contrived to secure the necessary escort in the person of her father. Mr Wentworth did not mind incurring a little trouble and inconvenience for the pleasure of Sir Harry’s society. Sir Harry was not only himself entertaining, but had a number of entertaining friends whom it was a change and an amusement to meet. As for Muriel’s apprehensions and warnings, they were preposterous upon the face of them ; impossibilities do not occur, and Mr Wentworth had a comfortable habit of treating all disagreeable occurrences as impossible. Muriel herself ended by shutting her eyes to what, after all, was not obtruded upon her notice. When one is helpless, one may as well hope for the best ; moreover, she had now a good deal more to occupy her thoughts than she had hitherto had. Every day she spent several hours with the sick children, whose affections she had no difficulty in gainin'': the Sisters made her welcome and were not averse to chatting with her about the rules of the Society to which they belonged, and in the principles of which they had the firmest faith; from time to time she encountered Mr Compton, who was always in a hurry, yet never passed her without saying a few friendly words, and she had come to look forward to the visits of Colonel Medhurst, who frequently happened to drop in about tea-time. Upon the whole, her life just now was pleasant to her, notwithstanding the modesty of its immediate aims ; and, that being so, she was disposed to take a more sanguine view of the proceedings and prospects of others. One day Sylvia received a letter which ought to have delighted her, yet, somehow or other, failed to produce that effect, and the contentsof which she did not at once communicate to Muriel. t ‘ We are going to have our annual ball next Wednesday, Lady Morecambe wrote, ‘and there will be two others in tire neighbourhood in the course of the week ; so you see the time has come for you to redeem your promise. We shall expect you on Monday, and I will undertake to provide you with as many good partners as you can wish for.’ Instead of jumping for joy, Sylvia found herself wondering whether she could not find some excuse for declining this seductive invitation, and it must be acknowledged that at first she was a little surprised by her own hesitation. However, she accounted for it by reflecting that she really had not more than one ball-dress fit to wear and that she could not afford two new ones; also that balls were poor fun when you hadn’t an idea who your partners would be ; finally that Sir Hany Brewster had promised to take her to see a polo match on the day named by Lady Morecambe. The approach of the post hour found her still irresolute, and she was sitting at her aunt’s writing-table in the drawing-room, biting the end of her pen and sighing, when Sir Harry Brewster was announced. Sir Harry, who was always careful to observe the laws of conventionality, hastened to explain that he had asked for Miss Wentworth and had been told that she was at home. * One Miss Wentworth is at home,’ answered Sylvia laughing, ‘ and the other will be soon. Sit down and help me invent a polite fib. Lady Morecamlie has asked me to go down to them next Monday for their ball, and I don’t think I want to go. What shall I say to her.’

4 When I don’t want to accept an invitation,’ observed Sir Harry, * I always say I’m afraid I can’t manage it; but perhaps ladies are expected to give reasons. Why don’t you want to go, though ? It’s sure to be well done, and I expect you would enjoy it.’ He added presently, ‘ I’ll go, if you will ?’ ‘ Have you been invited ?’ asked Sylvia, with a sudden change of countenance. ‘ No ; but that’s a triffe. I’ll get Morecambe to ask me.’ Sylvia looked down and began to draw patterns upon the sheet of paper before her. * Do you know,’ she said hesitatingly at length, * 1 don’t think Lady Morecambe quite—likes you.’ ‘ Oh, if that’s all, I’m sure she doesn’t,’ he replied. * Lady Morecambe is—shall we say prejudiced against me!’ Then, perceiving what he was probably meant to understand, he resumed : ‘ I shan’t beg for my invitation until the last moment, you know, and I shan’t apply to her ladyship at all. Meanwhile, please write an acceptance. I’ll undertake to say that when you enter the ball-room you will find me on the spot, waiting to claim a dance.’ From the above fragment of dialogue it will be seen that three weeks had brought about a decided change of relations between these two persons, and that Sir Harry had, consciously or unconsciously, ceased to pose as the benevolent admirer of mature years. Sylvia scribbled off the letter, pausing every now and again to throw a remark over her shoulder. ‘ I don’t know why Lady Morecambe should be prejudiced against you,’ was one of these. ‘ Oh, I think you do,’ responded Sir Harry, tranquilly. ‘ In a general way of speaking, the British matron is prejudiced against me, and the British matron is not wrong. I don’t complain—but at the same time I must confess that I don’t care. So long as you don’t share the good lady’s prejudices, she is very welcome to them.’ * But perhaps I should,* observed Sylvia turning a somewhat uneasy countenance towards him, ‘if ’ ‘ If you were as well acquainted with my misdeeds as she is? Very likely you would ; and that is why I shall not confess them to you. I will only take the liberty of pleading that I am not quite so black as I am painted.’ Daring the period of silence which followed this audacious assertion Muriel came in and recognised the visitor with a look of annoyed surprise which did not escape his notice. ‘ You will have to dismiss your butler, Miss Wentworth,’ said be ; ‘ his mind is too logical for his position. Yon have evidently given him a general order to the effect that you are always out when you are at home, and a deductive process of reasoning has led him to conclude that you must be at home when you are out. Anyhow, he assured me that you were at home, and upon the faith of that statement I followed him upstairs. I can’t pretend that I regret having done so especially as I arrived just in time to persuade Miss Sylvia that she ought to accept an invitation to Lady Morecambe’s ball, which she was thinking of refusing. Nobody understands how to make a country ball go off better than Lady Morecambe.’ ‘ I had not heard anything about it; Sylvia did not mention it to me,’ said Muriel, with a perplexed look. And then as her niece vouchsafed no remark : ‘ Are you going to this ball, Sir Harry ?’ she inquired. ‘ I am sorry to say that I haven’t been asked,’ replied Sir Harry, imperturbably. Sylvia bent over the envelope which she was addressing. She was perhaps a little ashamed of her confederate’s suppressio vert ; but, on the other hand, the fact that he was making himself her confederate was not disagreeable to her. As for Muriel she both felt relieved and looked so. ‘ Of course you will go, Sylvia,’ she said. ‘ When did you ever refuse an invitation to a ball *’ ‘ Oh, I am going,’ answered Sylvia. ‘ Only I doubted about it because Lady Morecambe says there are to be two other dances, and I have neither frocks nor money to buy them.’ ‘ If that is all, I’ll provide the frocks,’ said Muriel, who indeed was in the habit of supplementing her niece’s allowance by frequent gifts of that description. In the innocence of her heart, she felt quite grateful to Sir Harry for having urged this change of scene upon Sylvia, and began to think that, bad as he was, she might have wronged him by suspecting him of designs which only a hardened scoundrel could have entertained. It was, therefore, with unwonted graciousness that she said : ‘ I hope you will stay and have a cup of tea with us.’ ‘ He will be delighted,’ answered Sylvia for him. ‘ I say so to save him from tellin" a direct falsehood. Sir Harry would prefer a sherry and bitters ; he doesn’t really like tea ; no man does. Not even your long, solemn soldier, Muriel, though he meekly swallows about a quart of it every afternoon to please you.’ Muriel, slightly displeased, was beginning to say that neither Sir Harry Brewster nor anyone else gave her the least pleasure by swallowing what" he did not like, when she was interrupted by the entrance of the ‘ long, solemn soldier,’ whose arrival at that hour had, to tell the truth, become a matter of almost daily occurrence. The candles had not yet been lighted, so that Colonel Medhurst did not notice the presence of a stranger until after he had exchanged a few remarks with Muriel and had turned to shake hands with Sylvia. The latter since her

aunt said nothing', took upon herself to accomplish an introduction by which both men appeared to be disagreeably affected. Sir Harry on hearing the name of Colonel Medhurst, rose hastily, made a half bow and looked around for his hat, while the other standing stock-still, clenched his fist and muttered something suspiciously like an imprecation. Theie was a brief pause; after which the Colonel, whose voice was trembling with antrer, said :

‘ I have not tried to meet you, Sir Harry Brewster ; I know that I should gain nothing except a little personal satisfaction from giving you the thrashing that you so richly deserve. But since chance has biought us together in this very unexpected way, I will take this opportunity of telling yon that you are no gentleman and that you have no business to be in any lady’s house. lam sure if Miss Wentworth knew as much about you as I know, she would not permit you to enter hers.’ ‘Mv good man,’returned Sir Harry, calmly, ‘there is one thing which certainly ought not to take place in any lady’s house, and that is a brawl. Here is my card. If you wish to thrash me, and think you can do it, by all means call upon me at any hour which it may please you to appoint ; but, for your own sake, don’t indulge in strong language under circumstances which make it impossible for me to answer you.’ Colonel Med hurst was one of those quiet, sensible men who very seldom lose their temper, and who consequently have had little practice in the difficult task of self control. ‘ I am not going to treat you as if you were a gentleman,’ he retorted, forgetting that he was asked to show some consideration for his hostess, not for his enemy. ‘ Wherever 1 meet yon I shall say what I said just now, and, as you very well know, I can justify my words.’ ‘ In that case,’observed Sir Harry, ‘it is evident that one or other of us must retire. I will leave you to explain and excuse your behaviour to Miss Wentworth. No doubt, if she thinks it worth while, she will allow me to state my own case some other time.’ He then took his leave in a manner which was not devoid of quiet dignity ; and, as the slight pressure which he ventured to give to Sylvia’s fingeis was distinctly returned, he went away without much fear as to ultimate results. Yet his predicament was really an awkward one, as he might have realised, had he not been rendered a little dull of comprehension by the comparative facility with which he had regained his position in society, after a temporary period of eclipse. Medhurst when he was left alone with the ladies, grew a little cooler, though he was still much agitated. ‘ I suppose I ought to make you ah apology,’ he began ; ‘ I ought not, perhaps, to have brought about a scene in your drawing room. But I think you will forgive me when I tell you that that man was my sister’s husband, and that she was compelled to obtain a divorce from him while I was away in India. You won’t wish or expect me to give you all the particulars of the case; but I may say this—that she proved personal cruelty. He struck her on more than one occasion before the servants. And the worst of it is that he has not been punished ; he was glad to be set free. It is she, and she alone, who has suffered.’ ‘ I don’t think you owe us any apology, Colonel Medhurst,’ said Muiiel, who looked penitent and ashamed. ‘I knew —my brother told me—about the divorce; but I didn’t know who Sir Harry’s wife had been.’ ‘ Your brother told you, and yet you continued to receive him I’ exclaimed Medhurst. • Well—lam surprised. I must say that lam surprised.’ Muriel, feeling that it would be a little undignified to plead her own repeatedly expressed reluctance to receive the culprit, remained silent; but Sylvia said : ‘ Why are we to condemn Sir Harry unheard? Of course you are angry and you won’t admit that there can be anything to be said for him ; but there are always two sides to a case. ’ ‘ It is impossible to explain away facts which have been proved in a court of law,’ returned Colonel Medhnrst, coldly. ‘lf you will excuse me, I will say good-night now. I am sorry that this encounter should not have taken place elsewhere; but as regards what I said to that man I have nothing to retract and nothing to regret. ’ ‘ I can’t compliment your friend upon his manners,’ remarked Sylvia, when the door had closed behind the irate colonel. ‘One may forgive him for having insulted Sir Harry, though perhaps it would have been better form to wait until they were both out in the street; but I don't know what right he had to be so rude to us.’ ‘ He wasn’t rude,’ answered Muriel rather sadly, for she felt sure that her friend would now be her friend no longer, ‘he was only offended, and he had a right to be that. We ought not to receive Sir Harry Brewster ; I have thought so all along.’ ‘Papa doesn’t thinkso.it seems,’retuined Sylvia, preparing herself for battle; ‘ nor does Lady Morecambe. What have we to do with the sins which our acquaintances may have committed in days gone by ? I suppose that even Colonel Medhurst, if he were put into the confessional, would have to plead guilty to a few peccadilloes.’ But Muriel declined the fray. She reserved what she had to say for her brother, with whom she sought an interview in his study before she went to bed, and to whom she gave an account of the afternoon’s events. ‘ Dear me, what an odd coincidence,’ remarked Mr Wentworth, after patiently hearing her out. ‘Now that you mention it, I think I do recollect that the lady’s maiden name was Medhurst. Well, of course we mustn’t let these two fire eaters come to fisticuffs here. Yon had better give the necessary orders to the servants. ’ • I doubt whether Colonel Medhurst will ever come here again,’ answered Muriel : ‘lam sure he won’t if Sir Harry Brewster is to be admitted. Surely there can be no question as to which of them ought to have the door shut against him.’ An unwelcome idea was suggested to Mr Wentworth by this speech. He had always taken the possibility of Muriel’s marriage into account, but only in the same sense as he had contemplated the possibility of the house being burnt down or of his own premature demise. Just as there are a good many non-marrying men, so one occasionally comes across a non-marrying woman. He had mentally included his sister in the latter restricted class, and it is needless to add that he had done so very willingly. She was free to marry if she pleased, only her marriage would mean the curtailment of a considerable proportion of his personal comforts ; and that may have been one reason why he at once jumped to the conclusion that Colonel Medburst was in no way worthy of her.

• I am not prepared to shut my door against anybody,’ he rejoined rather sharply; ‘ but supposing, for the sake of argupient, that I had to be so uncivil, I would rather turn mv back upon Medhurst, who is simply a heavy nonentity, than upon Sir Harry Brewster, who is a man of the world and a pleasant companion.’ Muriel declined to take up the cudgels on Colonel Medhurst’s behalf. * I daresay you would,’ she replied : • but why will you persist in shutting your eyes to the, fact that vou are not the only person in the house? It isn’t for your sake or for Colonel Medhurst’s but for Sylvia’s that I want you to put a stop to this intimacy with Sir Harry Brew--BtMr Wentworth laughed. ‘One of the funniest things about women,’ he remarked, ‘ is the obstinacy with which they cling to an idea when there is not a tittle of evidence to support it. I have had more opportunities of seeing Sylvia and Sir Harry together than you have, and if you will believe me—but of course you won’t—neither of them is dreaming of a project which is palpably inadmissible. I grant you that Sir Harry treated his wife abominably ; but, as she was not a relation of mine, I don’t feel called upon to avenge her wrongs, Colonel Medhurst naturally does. Very well, let him avenge them in any way that may recommend itself to him. If cutting our acquaintance is one of them, I shall submit uncomplainingly.’ ‘ You don’t think it worth while to shield Sylvia from the risk of a great misfortune then ?’ . ‘My dear Muriel, haven’t I just told you that the risk has no existence, except in your imagination ? If you will only leave Sylvia alone and give her time, she will probably end" by marrying Johnny Hili. She won’t marry Sir Harry Brewster for two good reasons. Firstly :he won’t ask her, and secondly, I shouldn’t allow her to accept him if he did. Colonel Medhurst and he must settle their differences between them ; only as I said before, I should take measures if I were you, to prevent a settlement from occurring in this house. Our obvious course is to remain neutral.’ Muriel sighed and left the room. She could do nothing with this selfish optimist ; but she inwardly registered a vow to the effect that if Sir Harry Brewster had the effrontery to call again, he should find neither her nor Sylvia at home. CHAPTER XI. It is not with impunity that a sober, middle-aged man can permit his passions to gain the mastery over him. In the inevitable reaction which ensues his self-esteem is sure to sink to a very low ebb, and he not only feels that he has behaved like a fool, but is apt to conclude that he has been inexcusable in so behaving. So, in spite of the unbending attitude which Colonel Medhurst had assumed on taking leave of Miss Wentworth, he had not proceeded far on his homeward way before the voice of his conscience began to make itself heard. Nothing—so he said to himself —can justify a fracas in the presence of ladies, and if an actual fracas had been averted, the credit was due to Sir Harry Brewster, not to him. For two pins he would have caught the man by the throat or knocked him down. He shuddered as he inwardly made that acknowledgment, and told himself that he was no better than a vulgar ruffian. Of course what he ought to have done, on hearing who the stranger was, was simply to go away. At the most he might perhaps have explained his reasons for doing so in a few words. But it was too late to think of that now. What he had done could not be undone, and he must accept the consequences. One of these certainly seemed to be that a cold ness would arise between him and the woman whom he no longer disguised from himself that he loved, and another, he supposed, would be that he must make some appointment to meet Sir Harry Brewster. That the man deserved to be insulted did not alter the fact that he had insulted him ; he could not very well refuse to take any further notice of one whom he had treated in that way. At the same time he did not, now that his head was less hot, see what satisfaction either of them was likely to obtain from a meeting. It was all very well to talk about thrashing Sir Harry ; but such things if they are to be done at all, must be done upon the spur of the moment, and pistol and rapier have fallen into disuse in this country. Under the circumstances, therefore, nothing could be exchanged between him and his enemy except abusive language, which was scarcely a fit method of fighting for men to adopt. More mature reflection, however, led him to believe that there was, after all, just a possibility of some good resulting from the proposed interview. Remembering what Muriel had told him about her uneasiness respecting her niece, it dawned upon him that the undesirable suitor of whom she had spoken could be no other than Sir Harry Brewster, and he immediately made up his mind that he would at least relieve her of that source of anxiety. That it was in his power to do this he felt little doubt. It was not in his power to do anything for his sister ; if he killed Sir Harry she would be none the better off, nor would she thank him. Her injuries were irremediable; but surely, knowing whathe did, hecouldbringpressureenoughtobearupon this scoundrel to preserve an innocent girl from sharing her fate. He had the simplicity to imagine that a threat of exposure would nffice ; for, although nothing was more probable than that he man would tell Mies Wentworth a tissue of lies, these could easily be proved to be lies by the production of a file of old newspapers. The outcome of his meditations was that, as soon as he had dined, he despatched the following telegram to the address given him by Sir Harry Brewster : ‘ Shall I find you at home at eleven o’clock to morrow ?’ Telegraphing had the double advantage of insuring a speedy answer and obviating all necessity for conventional forms of epistolatory politeness. Sir Harry’s reply was not long in reaching him.

‘ Glad to see you at the hour named.’ ‘ I wish I could make you sorry to see me, you villain !’ muttered the colonel, grinding his teeth, as he tossed the slip of paper into the fire. ‘ Ah, if only you and I had lived a hundred years ago !’ But one must needs conform to the usages of the period to which one belongs, and an Englishman in the latterpart of the nineteenth century has no means of healing his wounded honour save such as a court of law may be pleased to accord him. Colonel Medhurst, therefore, presented himself at Queen Anne's Mansions on the following morning, like any ordinary visitor, and was admitted as soon as the hall-porter had ascertained that Sir Harry Brewster was out of bed.

It was in Queen Anne’s Mansions that Sir Harry Brewster resided at this time, his family mansion in Grosvenorsquare having been let for a term of years owing to unavoidable circumstances. The suite of apartments which he occupied formed very comfortable bachelor’s quarters, nor would anyone have supposed on seeing them, that their owner was suffering from financial straits. Their owner, clad in a crimson plush smoking-suit, had finished his breakfast and was enjoying a cigarette and the perusal of The Sportsman, when the grim Colonel was announced. He at once got up. • I really don’t know whether it is any use to ask you to sit down,’ he said ; ‘ but pray do so if you feel inclined. In fact, you may consider me entirely at your orders. lam ready to give you a cigar or to clear away the furniture and engage in a stand-up tight—just as you please.’ ‘ I came here,’answered Medhurst, speaking in the sharp, staccato accents of a man who has some difficulty in controlling himself, • because, after what I said to you at Miss Wentworth's house yesterday, it seemed to me that I was bound to accept your invitation to meet you alone. It is for you to decide whether there shall be a stand-up fight or not. For my own part, I don’t propose to break your bones, because I don’t see what would be the good of it.’

Sir Harry smiled. ‘ You are a heavier man than I, Colonel Medhurst,’ he remarked ; * but, lest you should think that I am afraid of you, I may mention that I know how to use my fists about as well as any man in England. I doubt whether you would get a chance of breaking any of my bones in two hours. Besides which, I agree with you that there would be no particular good in it if you did. Well, what can Ido for you ? You consider that I treated your sister badly and I do not deny it. Would you like me to cross the Channel and fight a duel with you ? If so, lam quite willing to oblige you.’ ‘ No,' answered the other, gloomily; ‘ I don’t see that there would be any good in that either. And why should I let you have a shot at me ? I meant what I told you yesterday ; you are not a gentleman and you have no title to be treated as one.’ ‘ From the reason which you gave just now for your visit,’ returned Sir Harry, without losing his temper, ‘ I supposed that you wished to give me an opportunity of avenging an insult. If you didn’t, and if you won’t fight, may I venture to ask why you are here?’ The question was certainly excusable ; but Medhurst, who had not expected it to be put quite so soon, was not prepared to answer it forthwith. He gnawed his moustache for a moment and then remarked : ‘ You don’t deny having treated my sister badly, but, in my opinion, “ badly ” is scarcely a strong enough word to use. As much as that might have been said if you had at least kept you hands off her ; but to beat a defenceless woman is—well, it is simply to put yourself outside the pale of common humanity.’ ‘On my side,’ replied Sir Harry, ‘ I may say that “ beating ”is too strong a word to use. I will tell you exactly what happened. Your sister is a pious woman, and like many other pious women she has the gift of exasperating sinners beyond all bearing. She so exasperated me by accusing me of misconduct in the presence of the servants that one evening I took her by the shoulders and pushed her out of the dining-room. On another occasion when her maid was in the room, she came close up to me and poured out a torrent of abuse against a woman of whom she was jealous and whom she mentioned by name. I was angry with her for mentioning names ; I threw up my hand rather with the intention of waving her back than of touching her, and I certainly did hit her on the arm. The maid afterwards swore that I had boxed her ears—which was a lie. Mind you, I admit that I was violent and I admit that my wife had reason to be jealous ; only I submit that when you speak of my having beaten her, you go too far.’ ‘ There is the evidence of eye-witnesses, which was not refuted and which was believed by the jury,’ returned Medhurst, doggedly ; ‘ I am not bound to accept your version of what occurred. I don’t care to discuss the matter ; it is past mending. But one thing I wish to say to you : you must cease your visits to Miss Wentworth’s house. It has come to my knowledge that you are paying attention to her niece—a girl who is scarcely more than a child—and you can’t suppose that I shall allow that to go on. Even you ought to feel that such attentions on your part are a little too infamous.’ ‘ I have been very forbearing with you, Colonel Medhurst,’ answered Sir Harry ; ‘ I have tried to make every allowance for the indignation which you express and which I should express quite as forcibly, I daresay, if I were in your place. But I must point out to you that you are now putting forward claims which are wholly inadmissible. Naturally’, I am not going to tell you whether you are mistaken or not in imagining that I am paying attentions to Miss Sylvia Wentworth ; but, if I were, I could not recognise any right on your part to interfere with me. We will drop that subject, if you please. ‘ Then I shall direct Mr Wentworth’s attention to the report of the proceedings instituted against you in the Divorce Court.’ ‘ Of course you are at liberty to do so ; although I presume that he is already acquainted with them. Possibly, if I think fit to make the attempt, I may convince him that the evidence was not strictly in accordance with the facts.’ ‘ Possibly you may, if you are shameless enough—as perhaps yon are. And yet it does seem to me that no human being with a spark of manliness left in him could be quite such a rascal. Surely it is no great thing to ask that you should tefrain from bringing misery upon a girl who isn’t old enough to understand what a histoiy like yours means ! You have escaped scot free ; nobody has punished you for what you have done ; as I have told you, I myself don’t intend to punish you ’ ‘ Oh, excuse me,’ interrupted Sir Harry ; ‘ you really must not expect me to thank you for sparing me. I have oflered to give you any kind of satisfaction that you like to ask for ; if you won't take advantage of my offer the fault is not mine. Upon no conceivable ground are you entitled to dictate to me who my friends shall be.' There was no disputing that assertion, and Colonel Medhurst, after a moment of meditation, realised that he could not dispute it. ‘ Very well,’ he said ; ‘you will take your course and I shall take mine. I don’t think so badly of Mr Wentworth as to believe that he will let you into his house when he has heard what I shall tel) him about you.’ With that he turned on his heel, and left his antagonist, feeling that he had by no means had the best of the encounter.

And now it seemed to him to be nothing less than his simple duty to call in Un|«i Brook-street and make a more ample apology to Miss Wentworth for his treatment of her visitor than he had made at the time. He bad been in the right so far as Sir Harry Brewster was concerned, but he had certainly been in the wrong in creating an embarrassing situation for a lady, and he felt that he ought to say so. Perhaps he may also have been influenced by a strong desire to make his peace with the lady in question ; but if so, he was honestly unconscious of it. Towards five o’clock, therefore, he wended his way westwards, animated by sentiments of the most penitent humility. Now, it so chanced that at the same hour Muriel was returning home from her daily visit to the children’s hospital, and thus it was that she was overtaken within a few yards of her own door by a gentleman whose aspect was very much less warlike than it had been on the occasion of their las: meeting. Medhurst oflered his excuses a little awkwardly yet after a fashion which was neither unflattering nor displeasing to their recipient. She understood very well that he could not bring himself to express regret for having used plain language to a scoundrel, but that he was mortally afraid lest, by so doing, he should have lost the good opinion of one whose friendship he valued, and she hastened to assure him that there was no ground for that apprehension. ‘ You could not have acted in any other way,’ she declared ; ‘ you only said what it was impossible to help saying, and I quite agree with you that Sir Harry Brewster ought not to be allowed to enter our house. But what can Ido? It is not my house, and my brother laughs at the idea of my setting myself up as a judge of the morality of his acquaintances.’ ‘ It isn’t as an acquaintance of your brother’s that you object to Sir Harry Brewster,’ remarked Medhurst unwittingly taking up a somewhat more peremptory tone than he would have adopted, had be been reproached for his indiscretion. ‘ I won’t pretend to be ignorant of what is so obvious, and it is difficult to me to believe that Mr Wentworth can be ignorant of it either.’ ‘ He can always manage to shut his eyes to things which he doesn’t wish to see,’ sighed Muriel. ‘ I have told him what lam afraid of ; but he treats it as a mare’s nest. He doesn’t want to cut Sir Harry Brewster, who amuses him, and he refuses to believe that there can be any danger in the case of a man who is almost as old as he himself is.’ ‘ But even admitting that there is no danger, he must see that his daughter ought not to be upon intimate terms with a man of that character. I think, if you don’t mind, I will have a little talk with him upon the subject.’ ‘Of course I don’t mind,’answered Muriel, ‘but lam afraid he will only laugh at you. I have told the servants I shall not be at home to Sir Harry Brewster in future. That much I was entitled to do ; but I can’t prevent Sylvia from meeting him elsewhere. Fortunately she will be going down to the country in a few days, and I have written to beg Harriet Morecambe to keep her as long as possible. I don’t think Sir Harry is serious: it is about her that lam frightened.’ In speaking with so much frankness Muriel was giving Colonel Medhurst a proof of friendship which he appreciated and which gladdened his heart. ‘ We ought to be able to protect your niece between us, Miss Wentworth,’ said he confidently. ‘ Brazen it out as he may, that rascal must be ashamed of himself and must know that he hasn't a leg to stand upon. Anyhow, I’m glad to think that he won’t be received by you any more. Probably Mr Wentworth has forgotten some incidents of which I shall take the liberty to remind him.’ Muriel, who by this time was standing on the doorstep, smiled and looked doubtfully at him. ‘k ou won’t be angry if you are politely requested to mind your own business, will you ?’ she asked. ‘ Not I ! I consider it my business to be of use to you in any wav that I can—and I don’t lose my temper very easily. Miss Wentworth, though 1 did forget myself in your presence yesterday.’ Muriel smiled again and held out her hand. ‘ I won’t ask you to come in this evening,’ said she, ‘ because I think perhaps you had better not meet Sylvia ; but if you care to call in a few days you can do so without any fear of finding Sir Harry Brewster in the drawing room.’ So the day ended for Colonel Medhurst a good deal better than it had begun. With what weapons he was to defeat the machinations of Sir Harry Brewster he hardly knew ; but one thing was, happily, beyond doubt, namely, that he had entered into an alliance with Muriel Wentworth. (TO BE CONTINUED.)