But George’s answer came at last.

“Stoics’club. 
“Dear father,

“Yes, Bellew is bringing a suit.  I am taking steps in the matter.  As to the promise you ask for, I can give no promise of the sort.  You may tell Bellew I will see him d—–­d first.

                              “Your affectionate son,
                                        “George Pendyce.”

Mr. Pendyce received this at the breakfast-table, and while he read it there was a hush, for all had seen the handwriting on the envelope.

Mr. Pendyce read it through twice, once with his glasses on and once without, and when he had finished the second reading he placed it in his breast pocket.  No word escaped him; his eyes, which had sunk a little the last few days, rested angrily on his wife’s white face.  Bee and Norah looked down, and, as if they understood, the four dogs were still.  Mr. Pendyce pushed his plate back, rose, and left the room.

Norah looked up.

“What’s the matter, Mother?”

Mrs. Pendyce was swaying.  She recovered herself in a moment.

“Nothing, dear.  It’s very hot this morning, don’t you think?  I’ll Just go to my room and take some sal volatile.”

She went out, followed by old Roy, the Skye; the spaniel John, who had been cut off at the door by his master’s abrupt exit, preceded her.  Norah and Bee pushed back their plates.

“I can’t eat, Norah,” said Bee.  “It’s horrible not to know what’s going on.”

Norah answered

“It’s perfectly brutal not being a man.  You might just as well be a dog as a girl, for anything anyone tells you!”

Mrs. Pendyce did not go to her room; she went to the library.  Her husband, seated at his table, had George’s letter before him.  A pen was in his hand, but he was not writing.

“Horace,” she said softly, “here is poor John!”

Mr. Pendyce did not answer, but put down the hand that did not hold his pen.  The spaniel John covered it with kisses.

“Let me see the letter, won’t you?”

Mr. Pendyce handed it to her without a word.  She touched his shoulder gratefully, for his unusual silence went to her heart.  Mr. Pendyce took no notice, staring at his pen as though surprised that, of its own accord, it did not write his answer; but suddenly he flung it down and looked round, and his look seemed to say:  ’You brought this fellow into the world; now see the result!’

He had had so many days to think and put his finger on the doubtful spots of his son’s character.  All that week he had become more and more certain of how, without his wife, George would have been exactly like himself.  Words sprang to his lips, and kept on dying there.  The doubt whether she would agree with him, the feeling that she sympathised with her son, the certainty that something even in himself responded to those words:  “You can tell Bellew I will see him d—–­d first!”—­all this, and the thought, never out of his mind, ‘The name—­the estate!’ kept him silent.  He turned his head away, and took up his pen again.