"Hush, sir! Hush! pray, gentlemen. A little bit of gallantry, nothing more." "Sir!" cried Denville. "Hush, sir, pray!" cried Sir Harry, who was white and trembling with dread. "No noise--the neighbours--the scandal. Perfectly innocent, I assure you. An assignation. I came to see Miss Denville here." Claire turned her eyes slowly from Richard Linnell, whose look seemed to wither her, and fixed them on the despicable scoundrel, who was screening her sister before her husband, but who would not meet her stern gaze. "I thought as much," said Burnett, with a sneer. "I tell you what--" "Silence!" hissed a voice in his ear, and a broad, strong hand came down on his shoulder with a grip like a vice. Claire saw it--the brave, true effort to defend her in her disgrace, and she lifted her eyes once more to Linnell's. Then she let them close, and stood there silent, with the sweet little girlish innocent-looking face of her sister before her, as she stayed listening to the condemnation of husband and father--little May, her father's darling--in her place. One word would save her, would clear her in the sight of the man who loved her, and of the father who stood sternly there; but she must condemn May to save herself, and she stood there as if convicted of the shameful act. For she spoke no word, and her sister's fame was saved. Volume Two, Chapter XVII. A STAUNCH FRIEND. "No, Miss Clode; I can be angry, and I can speak my own mind, but I'm not going to be so mean and shabby as to take my custom somewhere else, though it is so tempting; but what I say is this--don't you never say a word to me again about that young lady, or I shall fly out." "I'm very sorry, ma'am, I'm sure, and you and Mr Barclay are such good customers, besides being my landlord and landlady." "Oh, there's nothing in that, Miss Clode. You pay your rent to the day, and, as Mr Barclay says, it's a business transaction." "Of course, it's very painful to me, Mrs Barclay, and I shouldn't have told you what I did, only you know you came and asked me what people were saying." "Well, so I did. Yes, you're right, I did. But it isn't true, Miss Clode. Miss Claire Denville is as good as gold, and people tell most horrible stories, and where you get to know so much I can't think. But does everybody talk about it?" "Yes, ma'am, everybody; and Mr and Mrs Burnett haven't been there since." "I don't care: I won't believe it. And is it a fact that she goes regularly to Fisherman Miggles's to see that little girl?" "Yes, ma'am, regularly." "Then she has a good reason for it. There!" "It's a terrible blow for Mr Denville, of course, ma'am; and they say the young gentleman who has only just joined the dragoons is horribly put out, and challenged Sir Harry Payne, only the Colonel would not let them fight."