"And a devilish pretty woman, too. I've seen her frequently. By the way, I stopped in her bedchamber as I came through. But that's neither here or there. What are you doing here with this young whipper-snapper, Beatrice?" "Let me explain, Mr. Gloame," began Gates hastily. "I desire no explanation from you, sah," interposed Godfrey, towering with dignity. "You would explain just as all men do under like circumstances. Beatrice, I demand satisfaction." "Be rational, Godfrey, for once in your life. It is beneath my dignity to respond to your insult," said Mrs. Gloame proudly. "Good for you, Mrs. Gloame," cried Garrison approvingly. "You would be a bully actress." "Sah, you insult my wife by that remark," roared Godfrey Gloame, and this time the sword was unsheathed. "Oh, I'm not afraid of you, old chap," said Gates bravely. "You're nothing but wind, you know. Be calm and have a chair by the fire. Your wife says you have chills." "I do not require an invitation to sit down in my own house, sah. I am Godfrey Gloame, sah, of Gloaming, sah." "You mean you were--you are now his shade," said Gates. "Ah, that's the word I've been trying to think of--shade! You are shades--that's it--shades, not ghosts. Yes, Mr. Gloame, I've heard all about your taking off and I am sure that you were a bit too hasty. You had no license to be jealous of your wife--she assures me of it, and from what I've seen of her I'd be willing to believe anything she says." "Ah, too true, too true! I always was and always will be a fool. It was she who should have slain me. Will you ever forgive me, Beatrice, forgive me fully?" said Godfrey, in deep penitence. "I can forgive everything but the fact that you were so shockingly drunk the night you killed us," said she, taking his hands in hers. "Oh, that was an awful spree! My head aches to think of it." "It was not the murder I condemn so much as the condition you were in when you did it," she complained. "Mr. Garrison, you do not know how humiliating it is to be killed by a man who is too drunk to know where the jugular vein is located. My neck was slashed--oh, shockingly!" "Yes, my dear sah, if I must admit it, I did it in a most bungling mannah," admitted her husband. "Usually I am very careful in matters of importance, and I am only able to attribute the really indecent butchery to the last few sups I took from General Bannard's demijohn. My hand was very unsteady, wasn't it, dearest?" "Miserably so. See, Mr. Garrison, on my neck you can see the five scars, indications of his ruthlessness. One stroke should have been sufficient, a doctor told me afterwards. This one, the last,--do you see it? Well, it was the only capable stroke of them all. Just think of having to go through eternity with these awful scars on my neck. And it was beautiful, too, wasn't it, Godfrey?" Garrison thought it must have been the prettiest neck ever given to woman.