"When you are busy with your jokes," said he, "I would advise you to keep any friends of mine out of them—especially a girl who has no one to defend her. But I am glad I came here to-night. I begin to understand in whose foul mind arose those distortions, and misrepresentations, and lies. So it was to you George Morris came when he wanted to know about Mr. Bethune and his granddaughter? An excellent authority! And it was straight from you, I suppose, that George Morris went to my father with his wonderful tale——" "One moment," said Courtnay Fox—and he appeared to speak with a little difficulty: perhaps he still felt the pressure of knuckles at his neck. "Sit down. I wish to explain. Mind you, I could make this a bad night’s work for you, if I chose. But I don’t, for reasons that you would understand if you were a little older and had to earn your own living, as I have. It is my interest to make friends——" "And an elegant way you have of making them," said Vincent, scornfully. "——and I want to assure you that I never said anything to George Morris about Mr. Bethune that was not quite well-known. Nor had I the least idea that Morris was going to your father; or that you had the least interest or concern in the matter. As for a bit of chaff about Scotland: who would mind that? Many a time I’ve had it out with Mr. Bethune himself in this very room; and do you suppose he cared?—his grandiloquent patriotism soared far away above my little Cockney jests. So I wish you to perceive that there was no enmity in the affair, no intention to do harm, and no misrepresentation; and when you see that, you will see also that you have put yourself in the wrong, and I hope you will have the grace to apologise." It was a most creditable effort to escape from a humiliating position with some semblance of dignity. "Apologise for what?" said Vincent, staring. "Why, for your monstrous and outrageous conduct of this evening!" —"I am to apologise?" said Vincent, with his brows growing dark again. "You introduce into your scurrilous talk the name of a young lady who is known to me—you speak of her in the most insulting and gratuitous fashion—and—and I am to apologise! Yes, I do apologise: I apologise for having brought such a fool of a stick with me: I hope it will be a heavier one if I hear you make use of such language again." "Come, come, threats will not serve," said Mr. Fox—but he was clearly nervous and apprehensive. "Wouldn’t it be better for you, now, to be a little civil—and—and I could promise to send you Mr. Bethune’s address if I hear of it? Wouldn’t that be better—and more reasonable? Yes, I will—I promise to send you his address if it comes in any way to this office—isn’t that more reasonable?"