This speech quite crushed the vulgar but not ill-meaning Saint, and Geoffrey was sorry for it a moment after he had made it. But he was weary and out of temper. Why did his wife bring such people to the house? Very shortly afterwards their guest took his leave, reflecting that Bingham was a conceited ass, and altogether too much for him. “And I don’t believe that he has got a thousand a year,” he reflected to himself, “and the title is his wife’s. I suppose that is what he married her for. She’s a much better sort than he is, any way, though I don’t quite make her out either—one can’t go very far with her. But she is the daughter of a peer and worth cultivating, but not when Bingham is at home—not if I know it.” “What have you said to Mr. Dunstan to make him go away so soon, Geoffrey?” asked his wife. “Said to him? oh, I don’t know. He offered to give me a pair of guns, and I told him that I did not accept presents from my acquaintances. Really, Honoria, I don’t want to interfere with your way of life, but I do not understand how you can associate with such people as this Mr. Dunstan.” “Associate with him!” answered Lady Honoria. “Do you suppose I want to associate with him? Do you suppose that I don’t know what the man is? But beggars cannot be choosers; he may be a cad, but he has thirty thousand a year, and we simply cannot afford to throw away an acquaintance with thirty thousand a year. It is too bad of you, Geoffrey,” she went on with rising temper, “when you know all that I must put up with in our miserable poverty-stricken life, to take every opportunity of making yourself disagreeable to the people I think it wise to ask to come and see us. Here I return from comfort to this wretched place, and the first thing that you do is make a fuss. Mr. Dunstan has got boxes at several of the best theaters, and he offered to let me have one whenever I liked—and now of course there is an end of it. It is too bad, I say!” “It is really curious, Honoria,” said her husband, “to see what obligations you are ready to put yourself under in search of pleasure. It is not dignified of you to accept boxes at theatres from this gentleman.”