This rumour, once let loose, ranged at will, and these and a dozen other stories, each more preposterous than its predecessor, were circulated throughout Wandsborough, and all the region round about, and gained more or less of ready credence. Among those by whom they were accepted, opinions were divided anent the respective conduct of the General and his son in connection with the affair. Some held that the former was a domestic tyrant of the very worst order, and that the latter had, at last, justifiably rebelled--others again extolled the General as a model parent and a high-principled Christian man, while poor Roland, it was declared, had always been a depraved reprobate and an irreclaimable scamp; in short--and whatever had happened now, he had been rightly served. Then there were not wanting a few who held that between the two it was six of one and half a dozen of the other--that the Dorriens were at best an ill-conditioned, quarrelsome lot, and the less one had to do with them the better. At Ardleigh Court the tidings of the Dorrien quarrel were received with surprise and dismay. The Colonel warmly espoused the cause of the absent, wherein his wife differed with him wholly. Young men were so intolerably self-opinionated now-a-days, she declared, that no doubt General Dorrien had not been unjustified in what he did. However, having so far vindicated her principles of contradictiousness, she was fain to admit that Roland seemed far more sensible than most young men of his age, and she liked what she had seen of him. Whatever Clara may have thought, she said very little, though on one or two occasions she had stood up--rather warmly for her--for the exile; and Maud, albeit she had wrangled a good deal with him during his stay there, was really sorry for him, though being of a romantic turn she was inclined to feel very angry with him on her sister's account, her lively imagination having long since settled all that. "A pack of infernal lies?" cried the Colonel with heat, referring to some of the reports which had come to his ears concerning the absent. "Pooh! I don't believe a word of them. Dorrien's a quick-tempered fellow--always was, by Jove! and Roland's a chip of the old block. I suppose they lost their tempers with each other, and came to high words. As for all that slander, and bringing girls' names into the concern, why, it's scandalous." "Well, where there's smoke there must be some fire," suggested his wife, with characteristic originality. "Fire be damned, ahem! I beg your pardon," exploded the good-hearted Colonel. "And I tell you what it is. That libellous old Jezebel-- what's her name?--Frewen, for instance, will find herself in Court if she doesn't look out. Libel's a criminal offence, and if she comes before us, I'll commit her for trial--I will, by Jove, as sure as I'm Chairman of Petty Sessions!"