Sewell could not forbear a glance of triumph at his wife. “You leave us very little to ask,” said that injured woman. “But I've left myself a great deal to tell, my dear,” retorted Miss Vane, “and I propose to keep the floor; though I don't really know where to begin.” “I thought you had got past the necessity of beginning,” said Sewell. “We know that the new pearl sweeps clean,”--Miss Vane applauded his mixed metaphor--“and now you might go on from that point.” “Well, you may think I'm rash,” said Miss Vane, “but I've thoroughly made up my mind to keep him.” “Dear, _dear_ Miss Vane!” cried the minister. “Mrs. Sewell thinks you're rash, but I don't. What do you mean by keeping him?” “Keeping him as a fixture--a permanency--a continuosity.” “Oh! A continuosity? I know what that is in the ordinary acceptation of the term, but I'm not sure that I follow your meaning exactly.” “Why, it's simply this,” said Miss Vane. “I have long secretly wanted the protection of what Jane calls a man-body in the House, and when I saw how Lemuel had blacked the furnace, I knew I should feel as safe with him as with a whole body of troops.” “Well,” sighed the minister, “you have not been rash, perhaps, but you'll allow that you've been rapid.” “No,” said Miss Vane, “I won't allow that. I have simply been intuitive--nothing more. His functions are not decided yet, but it is decided that he is to stay; he's to sleep in the little room over the L, and in my tranquillised consciousness he's been there years already.” “And has Sibyl undertaken Barker's reformation?” asked Sewell. “Don't interrupt! Don't anticipate! I admit nothing till I come to it. But after I had arranged with Lemuel I began to think of Sibyl.” “That was like some ladies I have known of,” said Sewell. “You women commit yourselves to a scheme, in order to show your skill in reconciling circumstances to the irretrievable. Well?” “_Don't_ interrupt, David!” cried his wife. “Oh, let him go on,” said Miss Vane. “It's all very well, taking people into your house on the spur of the moment, and in obedience to a generous impulse, but when you reflect that the object of your good intentions slept in the Wayfarer's Lodge the night before, and in the police-station the night before that, and enjoys a newspaper celebrity in connection with a case of assault and battery with intent to rob,--why, then you _do_ reflect!” “Yes,” said Sewell, “that is just the point where I should begin.” “I thought,” continued Miss Vane, “I had better tell Sibyl all about it, so if by any chance the neighbours' kitchens should have heard of the case--they read the police reports very carefully in the kitchens----” “They do in some drawing-rooms,” interrupted Sewell. “It's well for you they do, David,” said his wife. “Your _protégé_ would have been in your Refuge still, if they didn't.” “I see!” cried the minister. “I shall have to take the _Sunrise_ another week.”