"Will you consider, then, that as far as Keswick and Kendal on one side, and as far as Dalton and Whitehaven on the other side, every local newspaper will have, or will make, its own version of the affair? The Earl of Lonsdale, with a large party, is now at Whitehaven Castle. What a _sauce piquante_ it will be to his dinners! How the men will howl over it, and how the women will snicker and smile!" "Sarah! you can think of the hatefullest things." "And Lonsdale will go up to London purposely to have the delight of telling it at the clubs." "Sarah!" "And the 'Daily Whisper' will get Lonsdale's most delectable version, and blow it with the four winds of heaven to the four corners of the civilized world." "Sarah Sandys, I--" "Worse still! that poor girl whom you treated so abominably, must suffer the whole thing over again. Her name will be put as the head and front of your offending. All her sorrows and heartbreak will be made a penny mouthful for country bumpkins and scandalous gammers to 'Oh!' and 'Ah!' over. Ulfar, if you are a man, you will not give her a moment's terror of such consequences. You may see that she fears them, by her sending her brother to entreat your absence." "And I must be called coward and runaway!" "Let them call you anything they like, so that you spare her further shame and sorrow." "Your talking in this fashion to me, Sarah, is very like Satan correcting sin. I loved Aspatria when I met you in Rome." "Of course! Adam always has his Eve ready. 'Not my fault, good people! Look at this woman! With her bright smiles and her soft tongue she beguiled me; and so I fell!' We can settle that question, you and I, again. Now you must ring the bell, and order your horse--say, at four o'clock to-morrow morning. You can have nearly six hours' sleep,--quite enough for you." "You have not convinced me, Sarah." "Then you must ride now, and be convinced afterward. For your sister's sake and for Aspatria's sake, you will surely go away." Lady Redware was crying, and she cried a little harder to emphasize Sarah's pleading. Ulfar was in a hard strait. He looked angrily at the handsome little woman urging him to do the thing he hated to do, and then taking the kerchief from his sister's face, he kissed her, and promised to leave Redware at dawn of day. "But," said he, "if you send me away now, I tell you, our parting is likely to be for many years, perhaps for life. I am going beyond civilization, and so beyond scandal." "Do not flatter yourself so extravagantly, Ulfar. There is scandal everywhere, and always has been, even from the beginning. I have no doubt those nameless little sisters of Cain and Abel were talked about unpleasantly by their sisters and brothers-in-law. In fact, wherever there are women there are men glad to pull them down to their own level." "Is it not very hard, then, that I am not to be permitted to stay here and defend the women I love?"