It made Ariadne horribly common, Aunt Gerty said afterwards, though she might easily have prevented it and told Bowser to hit one of his own class! Anyhow, poor Ariadne turned all the colours of the rose and the rainbow, and nearly cried for shame. She might as well have been on the stage, for she was just as public. All the Scilly party had of course turned round and were staring with all their eyes. Sir Frederick and Almeria never moved at all. Poor Simon did,--just once--and I saw his scared, disgusted face looking over his shoulder. I had never seen him look like that before. It was awful! The conjuror went calmly on to the next trick, but poor Ariadne had been thoroughly upset. She whispered to me, "I can't stand any more of this. I believe I shall faint!" That wasn't true, I knew, she can't faint if she tries, but still any one could see that she was feeling very uncomfortable. I said to my aunt, "We are going, Ariadne and I. You can stay behind if you like." And we got up and passed out amid a row of sympathetic--that was the worst of it--faces. Of course Aunt Gerty followed us out presently, and scolded Ariadne all the way home for allowing herself to be made a victim of. Ariadne never spoke, till we got in and up in our room. Then she burst out crying. "He will never speak to me again. I know he won't. He is very proud, and I have disgraced him--disgraced him before his order!" "You can't disgrace that until you are married to him, I suppose, and now you never will be." "No," Ariadne said, meekly, "I am unworthy of him." "You are very weak!" said I, "but on the whole I consider it was Aunt Gerty's fault. Brewing away like that and not attending to her charges!" Ariadne cried and hocketed, as the cook used to say, all night, and I tried to comfort her and tell her that Simon would probably come to call next day to show that _noblesse oblige_, and that he didn't think anything of it. Of course when I remembered his face, I didn't suppose he would ever care to see a girl who had been pummelled, first by Bowser and then by Dapping, again. All next day Ariadne would not go out. She said she could not meet the eye of Whitby. It rained luckily. Next day she still wouldn't, and as it was one of the best days we have had, I began to think that she was going too far with her remorse, and was quite cross with her. "No one ever remembers anything that happened to some one else," I said; "and they can't see that your shoulder is black and blue under your gown." "I feel as if I had been publicly flogged, and I had on my white muslin too," she moaned, though I don't know what she meant, that it had made a more conspicuous object, or was bad for the dress, or what. "I know one thing," she gulped. "Aunt Gerty or no Aunt Gerty, I shall cut Mr. Bowser next time I see him--cut him dead." "Why not? He murdered you."