MRS. MAXON PROTESTS BY ANTHONY HOPE METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON _First Published in 1911_ CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. "INKPAT!" 1 II. A CASE OF NECESSITY 10 III. 'IN SOLUTION' 20 IV. KEEPING A PROMISE 31 V. THE GREAT ALLIES 42 VI. FRUIT OF THE TREE 53 VII. A CODE AND A THEORY 64 VIII. SUBVERSIVE 74 IX. NO PROCEEDINGS! 85 X. MAUVE ENVELOPES 96 XI. AN UNMENTIONED NAME 107 XII. CHRISTMAS IN WOBURN SQUARE 119 XIII. CHRISTMAS AT SHAYLOR'S PATCH 131 XIV. A COUNSEL OF PERFECTION 143 XV. MRS. NOBODY 155 XVI. A WORD TAKEN AT PLEASURE 167 XVII. THE TRACK OF THE RAIDER 180 XVIII. NOTHING SERIOUS 193 XIX. A POINT OF HONOUR 206 XX. AN HEROIC OFFER 219 XXI. IS HE A BULLY? 233 XXII. JUDGMENT ACCORDINGLY 247 XXIII. THE REGIMENT 261 XXIV. AN ENLIGHTENMENT 274 XXV. "PERHAPS!" 286 XXVI. A FRIEND DEPARTS 300 XXVII. A PHILOSOPHICAL PROJECT 311 XXVIII. THE VIEW FROM A HOUSE 323 XXIX. IN THE RESULT 337 MRS. MAXON PROTESTS CHAPTER I "INKPAT!" "Inkpat!" She shot out the word in a bitter playfulness, making it serve for the climax of her complaints. Hobart Gaynor repeated the word--if it could be called a word--after his companion in an interrogative tone. "Yes, just hopeless inkpat, and there's an end of it!" Mrs. Maxon leant back as far as the unaccommodating angles of the office chair allowed, looking at her friend and counsellor with a faint yet rather mischievous smile on her pretty face. In the solicitor's big, high, bare room she seemed both small and very dainty. Her voice had trembled a little, but she made a brave effort at gaiety as she explained her cryptic word. "When a thing's running in your head day and night, week after week, and month after month, you can't use that great long word you lawyers use. Besides, it's so horribly impartial." She pouted over this undesirable quality. A light broke on Gaynor, and he smiled. "Oh, you mean incompatibility?" "That's it, Hobart. But you must see it's far too long, besides being, as I say, horribly impartial. So I took to calling it by a pet name of my own. That makes it come over to my side. Do you see?"