"Well, I mean this. It was idiotic to marry Di to liver-pill Goole, as they call him; and ten times more idiotic to encourage that racing cad, Captain Bellman, here; while it was madness to cut Charley Melton adrift, and try to bring things to an understanding between Maude and that hospital dummy, Wilters." "Your language, sir, is frightful," cried her ladyship, whose voice was rising in spite of herself. "Hospital dummy!" "So he is; I could drive my fist right through his tottering carcase. He's only fit to stuff and put in a glass case as a warning to young men." "I wish--I wish--I wish I could pat him on the back," muttered Lord Barmouth. "He's brave as a lion." "Sir Grantley Wilters has my consent to pay his addresses to your sister," said her ladyship with dignity; "and as for your disgusting remarks about Captain Bellman, he comes here with my consent to see your cousin Tryphie, for whom he will be an excellent _parti_." "_Parti_--funeral party. An excellent corpse," cried Tom in a rage, "for, damme, I'll shoot him on his wedding morning before he shall have her." "You will have to leave home, sir, and live in chambers," said her ladyship. "You grow too low for society." "What, and let you have your own way here, mother! No, hang it, that you shan't. You may stop my allowance, but I stop here; so don't look blank, dad." "Don't speak angrily to your mamma, my dear boy," said Lord Barmouth. "All right, gov'nor." "As to your friend and companion, whom you brought to this house, and who pretended, like an impostor as he is, to have good expectations--" "He never did anything of the kind," said Tom. "He always said he hadn't a rap." "Such a person ought never to have been brought near your sweet, pure-minded sisters," continued her ladyship; "I found out that he was an impostor, and now I hear that he gambles and is in debt." "Who told you that?" roared Tom. "Never mind." "But I insist on knowing." "Hush, hush, my boy," said his lordship, twitching Tom's coat. "Be quiet, gov'nor. Who told you that, mamma?" cried Tom. "I heard it from good authority," said her ladyship as Lord Barmouth beat a retreat. "Then good authority is a confounded liar," cried Tom, as her ladyship sailed out of the room, and after he had cooled down a little and looked round, he found his lordship had gone. Tom went into the cloak-room, where he came upon his father sitting on a box, busily spreading a biscuit with some mysterious condiment which he dug out of a pot with a paper-knife. "Poor old Charley," said Tom, not heeding his father's occupation, "he's the soul of honour--a regular trump. Look here, gov'nor," he cried, turning sharply on the old gentleman and making him jump. "Don't you bully me too, my dear boy," said the old man, trembling. "I can't bear it!"