‘Refused him!’ Lady Dunborough ejaculated in scorn.  Nevertheless she lowered the cane and, raising her glass, addressed herself to the window.  ‘Not accepted him?  Bosh, man!’

‘But if Sir George had proposed to her before?’ the tutor suggested.  ‘There—­oh, he is coming in!  He has—­he has seen us.’

It was too true.  Mr. Dunborough, approaching the door with a lowering face, had looked up as if to see what witnesses there were to his discomfiture.  His eyes met his mother’s.  She shook her fist at him.  ’Ay, he has,’ she said, her tone more moderate.  ’And, Lord, it must be as you say!  He is in a fine temper, if I am any judge.’

‘I think,’ said Mr. Thomasson, looking round, ’I had better—­better leave—­your ladyship to see him alone.’

‘No,’ said my lady firmly.

‘But—­but Mr. Dunborough,’ the tutor pleaded, ’may like to see you alone.  Yes, I am sure I had better go.’

‘No,’ said my lady more decisively; and she laid her hand on the hapless tutor’s arm.

‘But—­but if your ladyship is afraid of—­of his violence,’ Mr. Thomasson stuttered, ’it will be better, surely, for me to call some—­some of the servants.’

‘Afraid?’ Lady Dunborough cried, supremely contemptuous.  ’Do you think I am afraid of my own son?  And such a son!  A poor puppet,’ she continued, purposely raising her voice as a step sounded outside, and Mr. Dunborough, flinging open the door, appeared like an angry Jove on the threshold, ’who is fooled by every ruddled woman he meets!  Ay, sir, I mean you!  You!  Oh, I am not to be browbeaten, Dunborough!’ she went on; ’and I will trouble you not to kick my furniture, you unmannerly puppy.  And out or in’s no matter, but shut the door after you.’

Mr. Dunborough was understood to curse everybody; after which he fell into the chair that stood next the door, and, sticking his hands into his breeches-pockets, glared at my lady, his face flushed and sombre.

‘Hoity-toity! are these manners?’ said she.  ’Do you see this reverend gentleman?’

‘Ay, and G—­d—­him!’ cried Mr. Dunborough, with a very strong expletive; ’but I’ll make him smart for it by-and-by.  You have ruined me among you.’

‘Saved you, you mean,’ said Lady Dunborough with complacency, ’if you are worth saving—­which, mind you, I very much doubt, Dunborough.’

‘If I had seen her last night,’ he answered, drawing a long breath, ’it would have been different.  For that I have to thank you two.  You sent me to lie at Bath and thought you had got rid of me.  But I am back, and I’ll remember it, my lady!  I’ll remember you too, you lying sneak!’

‘You common, low fellow!’ said my lady.

‘Ay, talk away!’ said he; and then no more, but stared at the floor before him, his jaw set, and his brow as black as a thunder-cloud.  He was a powerful man, and, with that face, a dangerous man.  For he was honestly in love; the love was coarse, brutal, headlong, a passion to curse the woman who accepted it; but it was not the less love for that.  On the contrary, it was such a fever as fills the veins with fire and drives a man to desperate things; as was proved by his next words.