"Now you don't care what I do or whether I am dead or alive--that is what you mean, I see," he said, dropping my wrists and walking towards the door. "Augustus!" I called to him, and he came back. "Listen. You swore at me this morning. You were very rude to me, and you spend the day in London with another woman, and return bringing me a present. I have done my best not to resent these insults, but I warn you I will not stand any more." He became cringing. "Who's been telling the mater these stories about me?" he asked. "There's not a word of truth in them. It is a queer thing if a man may not speak to a woman without people making mischief about it!" "That is between you and your mother. All I would like to know is that you will not swear at me in future and will treat me with more civility." I felt I could not continue the subject of his "friendship" with Lady Grenellen. The whole matter seemed so low. "Well, you are a brick, after all, not to kick up a row," Augustus said. "So let us kiss and be friends again, and I am sorry if I was nasty this morning. There! little woman, you need not be jealous," and he patted my hand, and then began twisting the long waves of my hair in and out of his thick fingers. "What is a fellow to do when a woman falls in love with him?" he continued, with self-conscious complacency. "He can't be a bear to her, even though he is married, eh?" "No, it is only to his wife he can be the bear," I said. Of course, I ought to have been very jealous and angry, I am sure, but I could not feel the least emotion. I only longed to wrench my hair out of his hands, and to tell him that he might speak to and make love to whom he pleased so long as he left me alone and in peace. He then became more affectionate, telling me I was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and that I had "stunning hair" and various other charms, and if only I would not be a lump of ice he would never leave me! I could not say, as I felt, "But that is the one thing I should like you to do," so I said nothing, and, as soon as I could get near the bell unperceived, rang for McGreggor again, and put an end to the scene. VI Next morning at breakfast Augustus said: "As Farrington has refused for the 15th, you had better write and ask that fellow Thornhirst--your cousin. They tell me he is a capital shot, and I want my birds killed this year." The year before, apparently, the party had been composed of indifferent marksmen, and the head keeper had spoken rather sarcastically upon the subject. Augustus, when not bullying them, stands in great awe of his servants. "I am afraid, with only this short notice, there is little chance of Sir Antony being disengaged," I remarked. I somehow felt as if I did not want him to come to Ledstone. He would be so ridiculously out of place here.