"Pretext be shot!" irritably returned the Major. "Tell her you won't, as I do. I forbid you to lend her any. There she is! What a passionate knock! Been blundering up wrong turnings, I dare say." Lady Level came in, looking tired, heated, frightened. Mr. Ravensworth took her hand. "You have been walking here!" he said. "It is not right that Lady Level should be abroad in London streets at night, and alone." "What else am I to do without money?" she returned hysterically. "I sent the servants and the luggage to an hotel this morning, and gave them the few shillings I had left." "Do sit down and calm yourself. All this is truly distressing." Calm herself! The emotion, so long pent up, broke forth into sobs. "Yes, it is distressing. I come to England and I find no home; I am driven about from pillar to post, insulted everywhere; I have to walk through the streets, like any poor, helpless girl. Is it right that it should be so?" "You have brought it all upon yourself, my lady," cried Major Carlen, coming forward from a dark corner. She turned with a start. "So you are here, papa! Then I hope you have entered into sufficient explanation to spare it to me." "I have told Ravensworth of your fine exploit, in going to Lord Level's rooms: and he agrees with me that no one except an inexperienced child would have done it." "The truth, if you please, Major Carlen," struck in Mr. Ravensworth. "And that what you heard or met with--though as to what it was I'm sure I'm all in a fog about--served you right for going," continued the unabashed Major. Lady Level threw back her head, the haughty crimson dyeing her cheeks. "I went there expecting to find my husband; was that an inexperienced or a childish action?" "Yes, it was," roared the Major, completely losing his temper, and showing his fierce teeth. "When men are away from their wives, they fall back into bachelor habits. If they please to turn their sanctums into smoking dens, or boxing dens, or what not, are you to come hunting them up, as I say, with a spyglass that magnifies at both ends?" "Good men have no need to keep their wives away from them." The Major gave his nose a twist. "Good men?--bad men?--where's the difference? The good have their wives under their thumb, and the bad haven't, that's all." "For shame, papa!" "Tie Lord Level to your apron-string, and keep him there as long as you can," fired the Major; "but don't ferret him up when he is out for a holiday." "Did I want to ferret up Lord Level?" she retorted. "I went there because I thought it was his temporary home and would be mine. Why did he date his letters thence?" "There it all lies," cried the Major, changing his tone to one of wrath against the peer. "Better he had dated from the top of the Monument. It is surprising what mistakes men make sometimes. But how was he to think you would come over against his expressed will? You say he had bade you stop there until he could fetch you."