You have met the man, of course. Well, I wonder whether you will agree with me here. Ordinarily, I should say, he had the furtive, apologetic manner of one who is not quite certain of himself; once roused, even by something that the detached outsider might think was _not_ quite his business, he is a changed man. I am thinking now of his voice; the telephone had changed its _timbre_ into something quite terribly sinister. The way he said he had _persuaded_ Will to come home with him! And then he went on to ask whether he could not _persuade_ me, if I was not already engaged, to join them, as they were discussing certain things in which I really ought to have a say... Of course I went just as soon as Norden could find me a taxi. Will has the courage of a lion, but I would not leave him at the mercy of that epileptic creature when I knew that for weeks he had been so much overwrought and worried that the least thing might bring on a break-down... Besides, if Sir Appleton had repented his haste in throwing away an opportunity of securing my boy's services in his business, a mother's guidance and judgement could never be more needed; I do not wholly trust these "captains of commerce"; if they did not know how to drive a very hard bargain, they would not be where they are... I found them in Sir Appleton's study--doing nothing in particular, so far as I could make out, though Will was drinking whisky and soda, which shewed me that he must be greatly overwrought. "It is good of you to come, Lady Ann," said Sir Appleton. "You have not had time to forget our last meeting. I was made aware then of several things: as that your son had taken advantage of a young girl's innocence and was leaving her to bear the consequences... As that you were opposed heart and soul to such a _mésalliance_ as would result from his marrying her... As that you were unhappily not in a position to make adequate financial provision for her, but that you would pay her a hundred pounds 'in full discharge', as we say in business... _I_ felt that, as there was no law to cope with such gentry as your son, some one must take the law into his own hands. Now, Miss Phenton had no relations of an age to protect her, and your nephew seemed reluctant to vindicate the family honour--I sympathize with him; his words were: 'If once one starts thrashing the little beast, I don't see where it's going to end,'--; I therefore decided that it was incumbent on me, as the one person whom Miss Phenton had consulted, to administer such a lesson that your son would remember it to the end of his days. Having the good fortune to meet him in the street this afternoon, I invited him to come home with me and--be whipped!" My attention had wandered a little in preparing a speech for my Lord Culroyd the next time he does me the honour to call; but I saw Sir Appleton jerk his head towards the table and, to my _horror_, I beheld an enormous crop made, I should think, of rhinoceros-hide.