Volume Ii Part 3 (1/2)

”It's a troublesome and anxious duty, Mr. Dodd,” she said, ”to look after them all; but I try to s.h.i.+eld all my girls from possible harm, and this one evidently meditated making a fool of herself.”

”You are always judicious, my dear,” said the vicar.

”This house and this parish would not be what they are, Mr. Dodd, were it not for me.”

”My love, I am fully sensible of my great good fortune.”

”John,” said the vicar's wife as soon as they were alone, ”one of us ought to write to that poor thing.”

”What poor thing, my dear?”

”I mean the squire's unhappy daughter,” she said.

”Good heavens, Cecilia, for goodness sake, let her alone.”

”Leave her alone in the hour of her tribulation! Mr. Dodd, is that your advice as a clergyman, or is it your other ent.i.ty, the man of the world, who speaks?”

”Common prudence, my dear, suggests discretion.”

”And who shall listen to the whisper of prudence, when common duty speaks so loudly, Mr. Dodd?”

”My dear, 'too many cooks spoil the broth,' is a homely saying.”

”A vulgar proverb, Mr. Dodd.”

”But full of wisdom, my dear, as are most proverbs. I think there is another culinary hint, too, that I remember, 'It is good not to introduce one's finger into one's neighbour's pie.'”

”And is the murderer, then, to escape with impunity, Mr. Dodd? Is he to have at least no moral punishment; is the indignant finger of outraged society not to be pointed at him; is he with impunity to go out to slay whomsoever he will; and is there to be no Nemesis for such as he?”

”Oh, as much as you like, my dear; but there's no reason why you should personally represent outraged society.”

”If I felt it a duty, Mr. Dodd, I should certainly represent outraged society, and Nemesis too, if I pleased.”

”Of course, my dear, of course, and doubtless _con amore_.”

”John!” said the indignant wife.

But the vicar, having fired the last shot in his locker, had fled.

Fortunately Mrs. Dodd's time for the next fortnight was pretty well taken up. What with visitors who came to her to ascertain what they called the real truth; what with answering the innumerable inquiries of her large circle of acquaintance on what was now getting to be known as the ”Haggard Scandal,” Mrs. Dodd was fully occupied. It was a happy thing for Georgie; the young wife remained in ignorance of her husband's escapade. She was spared the threatened letter of advice and admonition.

Not one word did old Warrender breathe to his daughter of the matter.

The details of the affair however, that is to say of the actual meeting itself, were pretty well known in town. General Pepper had no cause for reticence. Men who had barely nodded to him before, now amicably grasped the warrior's hand, and asked him to the most _recherche_ dinners; and his inevitable description of the duel, at dessert, usually formed the feature of the evening. Cards of invitation from the most distinguished personages rained down upon the fortunate veteran in profusion. Report said that he had even lunched with the Commander-in-Chief. His cronies at the Pandemonium accused him of a.s.suming an air of habitual arrogance.

Captain Spotstroke swore that the general had cut him in St. James's Street.

But in London the lives of chance lions are short; people began to forget the Haggard duel and to cease to long for the presence of General Pepper, C.B. Grosvenor Square ceased to invite him to her banquets, though he was still a welcome guest in the mansions of Bayswater and Maida Vale.

As for Lord Pit Town, he was of the old school. He ascertained, from a reliable source of information, that Haggard had not been the aggressor.