are a very pure man, Howat; and for that reason such an occurrence would
tear you up and across. There is no use in begging you to be cautious,
diplomatic. Mr. Winscombe, too, is very determined; he has many
advantages--maturity, coldness, experience. He won't spare you, either.
It's excessively unfortunate."

"I'll get it over as quickly as possible. I didn't want the thing to
happen, it wasn't from any choice; it hit me like a bullet. Nothing else
is of the slightest importance. I've gone over this again and again;
I'll tell him and let him try what he can. Ludowika's gone from--from
the fireworks and fiddles and stinking courts; I've got her, and, by
God, I'll keep her!"

"Talk quietly; you can't shout yourself into this. Are you certain that
Mrs. Winscombe really finds the courts--stinking? I remember, at first,"
she stopped. Even in the midst of his passion he listened for what
revelation she might make; but none followed. She was silent for a
minute. "They become a habit," she said finally; "love, loves, become a
habit. Only men brought up in the same atmosphere can understand. At
first Felix Winscombe will be infuriated with you for speaking, then he
will realize more, and the trouble will follow. Are you certain that you
have comprehended? It would be stupid to mistake an episode, you would
succeed only in making yourself ridiculous."

He lifted up both his hands and closed them with a quivering, relentless
force.

"Truly," Isabel Penny remarked, "truly I begin to be sorry for her.
There is something she has yet to learn about men. Nothing can be said;
and that is what your father will not penetrate. Howat, I am even a