Jack noticed that Bobo was betraying an extraordinary agitation. Following a sudden impulse, Jack said carelessly to the boy: "Who is Mr. Spragge, son?" Fire flashed from Miriam's eyes, but before she could stop the boy he had answered involuntarily: "The reverend Mr. Spragge, sir. Parson lives in the house here." "Oh!" said Jack drily. The boy departed. There was silence at the table. The constraint which had formerly lain upon them was as the gayety of a childish game to this. Miriam had turned very pale, and she was breathing quickly--signs of rage in her. Bobo's chin lay on his breast, and he was visibly desirous of slipping right under the table cloth. Jack enjoyed his little triumph in silence. A single word would have precipitated an explosion from Miriam. For reasons of his own Jack wished to avoid a general show-down, and he did not speak it. He presently resumed the feather-brained rattle, and the tension was a little relieved. The simple-minded Bobo cheered up, evidently having persuaded himself that Jack had attached no significance to the mention of the parson. But the girl knew better. She watched Jack with somber eyes, waiting for him to unmask his guns. When they had finished their tea Jack ostentatiously consulted his watch. "By George! We'll have to be getting back to the Madagascar!" he cried. "Who's we?" asked Miriam with a sneer. "Bobo and I. Mr. Delamare's dining with us to-night," Jack lied glibly. "Is that true?" Miriam demanded of Bobo. Poor Bobo lacked the backbone to come out flatly for either one side or the other. He fidgetted miserably. "I don't know. Maybe. I forget." Miriam's luscious mouth had become a thin red line. "He can't go. He has an engagement with me." "Now that's too bad!" said Jack with deceitful solicitude. "He can't disappoint a big man like Mr. Delamare. Besides, there are important matters to be decided." Miriam was near the fulminating point. She looked stormily at Bobo. "Well? Have you nothing to say? It's up to you!" Bobo made a pitiable attempt to assert himself, but he could not meet Jack's eye. "I didn't know he was coming," he muttered. "I can't go now. Anyway you know about everything. You can talk to him." "There are papers to be signed," said Jack. "I can't do that." Bobo hung in an abject state of indecision. Miriam could stand no more. She kept her voice low out of respect to the other people in the tea room, but her words lost none of their force thereby. "Are you going to sit there and let this nobody tell you what to do? If you've got a spark of manliness, why don't you put him in his place? He mocks you to your face! His very look is an insult to me! Are you going to stand for that? Why don't you invite him to kick you while he's at it?" Jack thought: "Good Lord! Will he still want to marry her after getting such a taste of her quality as that?"