"Hang!" he exclaimed, rising to his feet. "I'll go, and take the consequences." "What consequences?" asked Trixie. "George, you weren't really serious when you talked about Guy Greaves just now? You don't really think you couldn't leave me for a fortnight in case I should get into mischief, and do something that would make you and me seem ridiculous?" "You don't understand," he argued hotly. "Then will you explain?" "I have tried to, but you can't see my point of view. It isn't that I don't trust you, Trixie; I know you don't mean any harm; but if you make yourself conspicuous with other men you can't expect people not to talk and think the worst, and I can't bear that you should be a subject for scandal." "But why should you imagine I am going to give anybody cause to talk directly your back is turned? I should do nothing while you are away that I wouldn't do while you are here." "That's just it!" he said, with some excitement. "If you ride and drive all over the place with young Greaves, and let him come and sit here for hours, as you did before he went on leave, there is bound to be gossip." "But _you_ know that there's nothing in it," she argued plaintively. "You have said so. Isn't that enough?" Then her heart smote her. She knew she was teasing him, making it more difficult for him to go away with a light heart to enjoy the shoot; and while she considered his attitude absurd, she made up her mind she would humour his scruples and sink her own opinion in favour of the circumstances. Poor dear old George! He was such a prude, so dog-in-the-mangerish, so prone to make a silly fuss about nothing. Yet, if it really worried him to think that she and Guy might lead people to imagine they were lovers, she would give in to him and promise anything he liked. She wanted him to have some pleasure; she was conscious that her notions of enjoyment were not his, and she felt it would be more than "beastly"--to use her own term--not to help him now to get off on this tiger shoot with a mind at ease. She came round the table and perched herself on his knee, winding a soft arm about his neck. "Will it make you happy, old George, if I promise not to go out with Guy while you are away, and not to let him come here when I am alone?" He pressed her to him in fond compunction, overwhelmed with tender feeling for her, recognising gladly the generous impulse that had prompted her concession. "Darling, I don't ask you to promise anything. I only want you to remember that you are a married woman, and to guard your name and reputation as something sacred. You have only to think a little, and not expect other people to be as charitable and unsuspicious of evil as you are yourself."