“By the general indiscretion of her conduct,” coldly replied the lady. “By Jove! I will not take such an answer!” roared the old commodore, bringing his fist down upon the table like a hammer upon an anvil, and making every article on it dance. “You would ruin an innocent girl’s reputation with a few generalities like that! I—will—know,” he continued slowly and emphatically, telling off every word with a thump of his stick. “I—will—know—every detail of—time, place, and company—word, act, and look of the indiscretion with which you charge this child! Yes, and I will have them established by more than one competent witness! None of your unsupported generalities for me! I have made myself the advocate of this innocent girl, and will see that she suffers no wrong. No, by Jove! While I’m commander of this ship—captain of this house, I mean—no woman in it shall suffer injury unavenged! No, in a few words tell me distinctly what the girl has said or done!” “Well, I do not think that you will be any better satisfied when you have heard,” said Mrs. Bruce maliciously. “This is her offense, then: She has been here but two days, and has been detected several times in private conversation with my son, your nephew, Ronald Bruce, who follows her about wherever she goes! There! now you have it!” “He—he—he! Ha—ha—ha! Ho—ho—ho!” laughed the commodore. “That’s a great offence, now, isn’t it? As if it wasn’t perfectly natural and right for a young man to follow a young girl around when they are both shut up in a lonely country house with a lot of old ladies!” “Hermia Templeton is not old, at least, and I think she is more interested in this matter than any one else,” gravely replied Mrs. Bruce. “That is true,” mused the commodore—“I beg Hermia’s pardon. She is not old. She is young and pretty and attractive enough for any man, and a great deal too good for my young rascal of a nephew: but as she is to marry him, whether or no, of course she has more at stake in this running than any one else! But now tell me the particulars—the particulars! Time, place, and circumstance! You know I told you that I would have the details and have them proved!” Mrs. Bruce told the whole story of Ronald’s and Em.’s meetings and talks, in the drawing-room, in the dining-room, in the library, and in the grounds. She told it, not as it is known to you and me, reader, but with many an exaggeration and much false coloring, as she had heard it from Mrs. Warde and Miss Belinda—for, ill as Malvina was, or affected to be, she was not too ill to play the part of an eavesdropper and a detractor. And since Em. had been in the house there was no harmless interview she had had with her honest suitor to which either the designing mother or daughter had not been an unseen listener.