_Cummings._--"You may throw me out of the window, if you like, but not till I've done my best to keep you here. It's a shame, it's a crime to go away. You talk about lunatics: you're a raving madman, yourself. Have one glimmer of reason, do; and see what you're about. It's a mistake; it's a misunderstanding. It's his right, it's your duty, to have it cleared up. Come, you've a conscience, Bartlett, and a clean one. Don't give way to your abominable temper. What? You won't stay? Bartlett, I blush for you!" _Bartlett._--"Blush unseen, then!" He thrusts Cummings aside and pushes furiously from the room. Cummings looks into the corridor after him, and then returns, panting, to the piano, and mechanically rearranges the things at his feet; he walks nervously away, and takes some turns up and down the room, looking utterly bewildered, and apparently uncertain whether to go or stay. But he has decided upon the only course really open to him by sinking down into one of the armchairs, when General Wyatt appears at the threshold of the door on the right of the piano. Cummings rises and comes forward in great embarrassment to meet him. V. CUMMINGS _and_ GENERAL WYATT. _General Wyatt_, with a look of surprise at not seeing Bartlett.--"The other gentleman"-- _Cummings._--"My friend has gone out. I hope he will return soon. He has--I hardly know what to say to you, sir. He has done himself great injustice; but it was natural that under the circumstances"-- _General Wyatt_, with hurt pride.--"Perfectly. I should have lost my temper, too; but I think I should have waited at the request--the prayer of an older man. I don't mind his temper; the other villain had _no_ temper. Sir, am I right in addressing you as the Rev. Arthur Cummings?" _Cummings._--"My name is Arthur Cummings. I am a minister." _General Wyatt._--"I thought I was not mistaken this time. I heard you preach last Sunday in Boston; and I know your cousin, Major Cummings of the 34th Artillery. I am General Wyatt." _Cummings_, with a start of painful surprise and sympathy.--"General Wyatt?" _General Wyatt_, keenly.--"Your cousin has mentioned me to you?" _Cummings._--"Yes,--oh yes, certainly; certainly, very often, General Wyatt. But"--endeavouring to recover himself--"your name is known to us all, and honoured. I--I am glad to see you back; I--understood you were in Paris." _General Wyatt_, with fierce defiance.--"I was in Paris three weeks ago." Some moments of awkward silence ensue, during which General Wyatt does not relax his angry attitude. _Cummings_, finally.--"I am sorry my friend is not here to meet you. I ought to say, in justice to him, that his hasty temper does great wrong to his heart and judgment." _General Wyatt._--"Why, yes, sir; so does mine--so does mine." _Cummings_, with a respectful smile lost upon the General.--"And I know that he will certainly be grieved in this instance to have yielded to it."