Blake himself had made the path easy to them. There was little
need for either fear or caution. Indeed, their safest course lay
in recklessness, and they took it. To Sennett the house was always
open. It was Blake himself who, when unable to accompany his wife,
would suggest Sennett as a substitute. Club friends shrugged their
shoulders. Was the man completely under his wife's thumb; or,
tired of her, was he playing some devil's game of his own? To most
of his acquaintances the latter explanation seemed the more
plausible.

The gossip, in due course, reached the parental home. Mrs.
Eppington shook the vials of her wrath over the head of her son-in-
law. The father, always a cautious man, felt inclined to blame his
child for her want of prudence.

"She'll ruin everything," he said. "Why the devil can't she be
careful?"

"I believe the man is deliberately plotting to get rid of her,"
said Mrs. Eppington. "I shall tell him plainly what I think."

"You're a fool, Hannah," replied her husband, allowing himself the
licence of the domestic hearth. "If you are right, you will only
precipitate matters; if you are wrong, you will tell him what there
is no need for him to know. Leave the matter to me. I can sound
him without giving anything away, and meanwhile you talk to Edith."

So matters were arranged, but the interview between mother and
daughter hardly improved the position. Mrs. Eppington was
conventionally moral; Edith had been thinking for herself, and