_General Wyatt_, going up to Cummings.-- "I must go, sir. I leave unsaid what I cannot even try to say." He offers his hand. _Cummings_, grasping the proffered hand.--"Everything is understood." But as Mr. Cummings returns from following General Wyatt to the door, his face does not confirm the entire security of his words. He looks anxious and perturbed, and when he has taken up his hat and stick, he stands pondering absent-mindedly. At last he puts on his hat and starts briskly toward the door. Before he reaches it, he encounters Bartlett, who advances abruptly into the room. "Oh! I was going to look for you." VI. CUMMINGS _and_ BARTLETT. _Bartlett_, sulkily.--"Were you?" He walks, without looking at Cummings, to where his painter's paraphernalia are lying, and begins to pick them up. _Cummings._--"Yes." In great embarrassment: "Bartlett, General Wyatt has been here." _Bartlett_, without looking round.--"Who is General Wyatt?" _Cummings._--"I mean the gentleman who--whom you wouldn't wait to see." _Bartlett._--"Um!" He has gathered the things into his arms, and is about to leave the room. _Cummings_, in great distress.--"Bartlett, Bartlett! Don't go! I implore you, if you have any regard for me whatever, to hear what I have to say. It's boyish, it's cruel, it's cowardly to behave as you're doing!" _Bartlett._--"Anything more, Mr. Cummings? I give you benefit of clergy." _Cummings._--"I take it--to denounce your proceeding as something that you'll always be sorry for and ashamed of." _Bartlett._--"Oh! Then, if you have quite freed your mind, I think I may go." _Cummings._--"No, no! You mustn't go. Don't go, my dear fellow. Forgive me! I know how insulted you feel, but upon my soul it's all a mistake,--it is, indeed. General Wyatt"--Bartlett falters a moment and stands as if irresolute whether to stay and listen or push on out of the room--"the young lady--I don't know how to begin!" _Bartlett_, relenting a little.--"Well? I'm sorry for _you_, Cummings. I left a very awkward business to you, and it wasn't yours either. As for General Wyatt, as he chooses to call himself"-- _Cummings_, in amaze.--"_Call_ himself? It's his _name_!" _Bartlett._--"Oh, very likely! So is King David his name, when he happens to be in a Scriptural craze. What explanation have you been commissioned to make me? What apology?" _Cummings._--"The most definite, the most satisfactory. You resemble in a most extraordinary manner a man who has inflicted an abominable wrong upon these people, a treacherous and cowardly villain"-- _Bartlett_, in a burst of fury.--"Stop! Is that your idea of an apology, an explanation? Isn't it enough that I should be threatened, and vilified, and have people fainting at the sight of me, but I must be told by way of reparation that it all happens because I look like a rascal?" _Cummings._--"My dear friend! Do listen to me!"