Then she told him, as nearly as she could, all that had passed between them, including the expression of his desire that she should not waltz, and his subsequent permission given at Lady Brabazon's. "Pish!" he ejaculated. "I hate these attempted restrictions. It is like a woman telling her husband not to smoke. What a fool a man must be not to see that he is preparing misery for himself by laying embargoes on the recreations of his nearest companion!" Then he spoke of what he himself would do. "I must see him, and if he will not hear reason you must go with me to the Deanery without him." "Don't separate us, papa." "God forbid that there should be any permanent separation. If he be obstinate, it may be well that you should be away from him for a week or two. Why can't a man wash his dirty linen at home, if he has any to wash. His, at any rate, did not come to him with you." Then there was a very stormy scene in the dining-room between the two men. The Dean, whose words were infinitely more ready and available than those of his opponent, said very much the most, and by the fierce indignation of his disclaimers, almost prevented the husband from dwelling on the wife's indiscretion. "I did not think it possible that such a man as you could have behaved so cruelly to such a girl." "I was not cruel; I acted for the best." "You degraded yourself, and her too." "I degraded no one," said Lord George. "It is hard to think what may now best be done to cure the wound which she has been made to suffer. I must insist on this,--that she must not be taken from town before the day fixed for her departure." "I think of going to-morrow," said Lord George, gloomily. "Then you must go alone, and I must remain with her." "Certainly not;--certainly not." "She will not go. She shall not be made to run away. Though everything have to be told in the public prints, I will not submit to that. I suppose you do not dare to tell me that you suspect her of any evil?" "She has been indiscreet." "Suppose I granted that,--which I don't,--is she to be ground into dust in this way for indiscretion? Have not you been indiscreet?" Lord George made no direct answer to this question, fearing that the Dean had heard the story of the love-letter; but of that matter the Dean had heard nothing. "In all your dealings with her, can you tax yourself with no deviation from wisdom?" "What a man does is different. No conduct of mine can blemish her name." "But it may destroy her happiness,--and if you go on in this way it will do so."