Her husband turned savagely upon her. "Say? He said there was no engagement between his brother--his '_young_ brother'--and my daughter. That such an engagement would never receive his sanction. That he was not aware his '_young_ brother'--he's always sticking the word down your throat; the sanctimonious prig--I longed to kick him!--was on terms of intimacy with any one in my family." "William!" Mrs. Day, cut to the quick, called protestingly upon her husband's name. "I hope you answered him there. I hope you did!" "I said the young beggar was always hanging about my house. That he had danced half the night with my daughter--and--and made love to her." "And then? And then, William?" "He said, 'I wish all acquaintanceship to cease. I beg you not to invite my young brother to your house again.'" "He said that?" "Damn him! Yes." "But that was an insult!" The poor woman was pale with surprise and dismay. She stared breathlessly upon her husband. "Didn't you show him you felt it was an insult, William?" William moved his huge shoulders. "What do you think?" "Tell me what you said to him." "I swore at him for ten minutes. He didn't know if he stood on his head or his heels when I'd done with him. Then I came away." "I don't think that _swearing_ would improve matters." "Perhaps you'll tell me what would improve them? It's what I want to hear, and more than I know." "Poor Bessie! Oh, poor, poor Bessie!" "Ah!" poor Bessie's father said, and his short-necked head fell upon his breast, and he gazed drearily at the fire again. Mrs. Day got up and stood, her white hand glittering with its rings laid upon the black marble of the mantelpiece, thinking of Bessie. "I would go to the club, William," presently she advised. "It can't make matters any better to sit at home and mope over them." "Didn't I tell you I wasn't going to the club? D'you think I'm like a woman, and don't know my own mind?" "I thought it would be pleasanter for you," she said; and then she left him. Her mind was full of Bessie, and the blow which must be given to Bessie's hopes. "I don't know how I shall ever find the heart to tell her," she said to herself as she went from the room. CHAPTER III Forcus's Family Ale