Meanwhile Richard had hastily picked up the Times. “She is due here the day after to-morrow,” he said deliberately. “Frank is as decisive as he is rash. Well, it’s a melancholy tit-for-tat.” “What do you mean by tit-for-tat?” cried his father angrily. “Oh, I mean that--that we tried to hasten Julia’s marriage--with the other fellow, and he is giving us one in return; and you will all agree that it’s a pretty permanent one.” The old soldier recovered himself, and was beside his wife in an instant. He took her hand. “Don’t fret about it, wife,” he said; “it’s an ugly business, but we must put up with it. The boy was out of his head. We are old, now, my dear, but there was a time when we should have resented such a thing as much as Frank--though not in the same fashion, perhaps--not in the same fashion.” The old man pressed his lips hard to keep down his emotion. “Oh, how could he--how could he!” said his mother: “we meant everything for the best.” “It is always dangerous business meddling with lovers’ affairs,” rejoined Richard. “Lovers take themselves very seriously indeed, and--well, here the thing is! Now, who will go and fetch her from Liverpool? I should say that both my father and my mother ought to go.” Thus Richard took it for granted that they would receive Frank’s Indian wife into their home. He intended that, so far as he was concerned, there should be no doubt upon the question from the beginning. “Never--she shall never come here!” said Marion, with flashing eyes; “a common squaw, with greasy hair, and blankets, and big mouth, and black teeth, who eats with her fingers and grunts! If she does, if she is brought to Greyhope, I will never show my face in the world again. Frank married the animal: why does he ship her home to us? Why didn’t he come with her? Why does he not take her to a home of his own? Why should he send her here, to turn our house into a menagerie?” Marion drew her skirt back, as if the common squaw, with her blankets and grease, was at that moment near her. “Well, you see,” continued Richard, “that is just it. As I said, Frank arranged this little complication with a trifling amount of malice. No doubt he didn’t come with her because he wished to test the family loyalty and hospitality; but a postscript to this letter says that his solicitor has instructions to meet his wife at Liverpool, and bring her on here in case we fail to show her proper courtesy.” General Armour here spoke. “He has carried the war of retaliation very far indeed, but men do mad things when their blood is up, as I have seen often. That doesn’t alter our clear duty in the matter. If the woman were bad, or shameful, it would be a different thing; if--” Marion interrupted: “She has ridden bareback across the continent like a jockey,--like a common jockey, and she wears a blanket, and she doesn’t know a word of English, and she will sit on the floor!”