At tea Mrs. Hesketh realised that she was not a welcome guest. Her host did not find it necessary to conceal his sentiments; nor did she fail to remark, the abominable way in which he addressed his wife, and how he ordered her about, and pushed out of the room before her. Dinner was a truly sombre meal: the fish was cold, and Mr. Blagdon had one of his worst attacks of temper. Vainly did the visitor endeavour to make light and airy conversation; he was so violent and abusive after the servants had withdrawn, that Letty, unable to restrain her tears, fled out of the room; but brave Mrs. Hesketh remained to remonstrate and do battle with the tyrant. “If no one else is going to speak to you, Mr. Blagdon, I will,” she began intrepidly. “Everyone is crying shame on you for the way you neglect your young wife.” “I don’t care a damn what they say!” he roared. “Let everyone mind their own business. She is jolly well treated--too well.” “Is it too well, that she should be shut up here alone for months at a time? That she is cut off from all associates of her own class--that she is never taken into society?” “She has everything she wants,” he blustered; “a fine house, and servants--and a baby. Why, my mother’s mother who lived here, and never stirred beyond the village, and was a woman of family--hadn’t half such a good time!” “That must have been more than a hundred years ago, and the world has improved, and become enlightened since then. Letty is a girl who has been educated.” “And you mean to say my mother’s mother wasn’t? Thank you!” “You know very well what I mean.” “I’m damned if I know what you mean, by taking me to task in this way, and calling me over the coals in my own house,” and his expression was murderous. “I am Letty’s friend.” “Yes, and no doubt she has been whining to you, and telling you fine tales?” he demanded with blazing eyes, “and posing as a martyr.” “She has never breathed a word of her troubles to me; but anyone can see that she is unhappy. I can’t think why in the world you married her?” “I can’t think why I did, either! I was deadly sick of her at the end of a week. Upon my soul, I was! Marriage is like a trap--you can’t have a wife on approval--when you are in, there’s no way of getting out! By Jove, I envy the Americans their divorce laws--then she could go her way--and I mine. If some smart young fellow would take a fancy to Letty, and run off with her I should say ‘Wah-wah!’” Mrs. Hesketh looked as she was--horrified. “There are no smart young men about here,” he added; “so Letty is all right--virtue is the absence of temptation.” Mrs. Hesketh rose slowly, turned her back upon her host, walked to the door very quietly, opened it and went out, leaving it wide. She found Letty in her own room, sitting with her face in her hands,--a frequent attitude.