He rose and went to the plan of the estate fastened to the wall, which he unrolled by pulling a green silk cord, and stood there scrutinising it carefully and placing his finger here and there.  His spaniel rose too, and settled himself unobtrusively on his master’s foot.  Mr. Pendyce moved and trod on him.  The spaniel yelped.

“D—­n the dog!  Oh, poor fellow, John!” said Mr. Pendyce.  He went back to his seat, but since he had identified the wrong spot he was obliged in a minute to return again to the plan.  The spaniel John, cherishing the hope that he had been justly treated, approached in a half circle, fluttering his tail; he had scarcely reached Mr. Pendyce’s foot when the door was opened, and the first footman brought in a letter on a silver salver.

Mr. Pendyce took the note, read it, turned to his bureau, and said:  “No answer.”

He sat staring at this document in the silent room, and over his face in turn passed anger, alarm, distrust, bewilderment.  He had not the power of making very clear his thought, except by speaking aloud, and he muttered to himself.  The spaniel John, who still nurtured a belief that he had sinned, came and lay down very close against his leg.

Mr. Pendyce, never having reflected profoundly on the working morality of his times, had the less difficulty in accepting it.  Of violating it he had practically no opportunity, and this rendered his position stronger.  It was from habit and tradition rather than from principle and conviction that he was a man of good moral character.

And as he sat reading this note over and over, he suffered from a sense of nausea.

It was couched in these terms: 

         &nb
sp;                         “Thefirs,
                                        “May 20. 
“Dear sir,

“You may or may not have heard that I have made your son, Mr. George Pendyce, correspondent in a divorce suit against my wife.  Neither for your sake nor your son’s, but for the sake of Mrs. Pendyce, who is the only woman in these parts that I respect, I will withdraw the suit if your son will give his word not to see my wife again.

“Please send me an early answer. 
                                   “I am,
                              “Your obedient servant,

“JasparBellew.”

The acceptance of tradition (and to accept it was suitable to the Squire’s temperament) is occasionally marred by the impingement of tradition on private life and comfort.  It was legendary in his class that young men’s peccadilloes must be accepted with a certain indulgence.  They would, he said, be young men.  They must, he would remark, sow their wild oats.  Such was his theory.  The only difficulty he now had was in applying it to his own particular case, a difficulty felt by others in times past, and to be felt again in times to come.  But, since he was not a philosopher, he did not perceive