"I don't want to go. I only want distraction. In fact, I don't
think I shall go," added Mr. Handford. But a woman urged him to
do so.

"Sir Walter would like it," she said.

"It's all very sad and very exasperating indeed," declared the
Yorkshireman; "and it shows, if that wanted showing, that there's
far, far less consideration among young men for their elders than
there used to be in my young days. If my father-in-law had told me
not to do a thing, the very wish to do it would have disappeared
at once."

"Sir Walter was as clear as need be," added Felix. "We all heard
him. Then the young fool--Heaven forgive him--behind everybody's
back goes and plays with fire in this insane way."

"The selfishness! Just look at the inconvenience--the upset--the
suffering to his relations and the worry for all of us. All our
plans must be altered--everything upset, life for the moment
turned upside down--a woman's heart broken very likely--and all
for a piece of disobedient folly. Such things make one out of tune
with Providence. They oughtn't to happen. They don't happen in
Yorkshire. Devonshire appears to be a slacker's county. It's the
air, I shouldn't wonder."

"Education, and law and order, and the discipline inculcated in the
Navy ought to have prevented this," continued Fayre-Michell. "Who
ever heard of a sailor disobeying--except Nelson?"