I waited a moment, thinking she would speak, prepared on my side to be as explicit as she pleased; but Mrs. Lascelles only looked at me with her mouth tight shut and her eyes wide open; and I concluded—­somewhat uneasily, I will confess—­that she saw for herself what I meant.

“As for the Matterhorn,” I went on, “that, I believe, is not such a very dangerous exploit in these days.  There are permanent chains and things where there used to be polished precipices.  It makes the real mountaineers rather scornful; anyone with legs and a head, they will tell you, can climb the Matterhorn nowadays.  If I had the legs I’d go with him, like a shot.”

“To share the danger, I suppose?”

“And the sport.”

“Ah,” said Mrs. Lascelles, “and the sport, of course!  I had forgotten that!”

Yet I did not perceive that I had been found out, for nothing was further from my mind than to prolong the parable to which I had stooped in passing a few moments before.  It had served its purpose, I conceived.  I had given my veiled warning; it never occurred to me that Mrs. Lascelles might be indulging in a veiled retort.  I thought she was annoyed at the hint that I had given her.  I began to repent of that myself.  It had quite spoilt our day, and so many and long were the silences, as we wandered from little shop to little shop, and finally with relief to the train, that I had plenty of time to remember how much we had found to talk about all the morning.

But matters were coming to a head in spite of me, for Bob Evers waylaid us on our return, and, with hardly a word to Mrs. Lascelles, straightway followed me to my room.  He was pale with a suppressed anger which flared up even as he closed my door behind him, but though his honest face was now in flames, he still kept control of his tongue.

“I want you to lend me one of those sticks of yours,” he said, quietly; “the heaviest, for choice.”

“What the devil for?” I demanded, thinking for the moment of no shoulders but my own.

“To give that bounder Quinby the licking he deserves!” cried Bob:  “to give it him now at once, when the post comes in, and there are plenty of people about to see the fun.  Do you know what he’s been saying and spreading all over the place?”

“No,” I answered, my heart sinking within me.  “What has he been saying?”

The colour altered on Bob’s face, altered and softened to a veritable blush, and his eyes avoided mine.

“I’m ashamed to tell you, it makes me so sick,” he said, disgustedly.  “But the fact is that he’s been spreading a report about Mrs. Lascelles; it has nothing on earth to do with me.  It appears he only heard it himself this morning, by letter, but the brute has made good use of his time! I only got wind of it an hour or two ago, of course quite by accident, and I haven’t seen the fellow since; but he’s particularly keen on his letters, and either he explains himself to my satisfaction or I make an example of him before the hotel.  It’s a thing I never dreamt of doing in my life, and I’m sorry the poor beast is such a scarecrow; but it’s a duty to punish that sort of crime against a woman, and now I’m sure you’ll lend me one of your sticks.  I am only sorry I didn’t bring one with me.”