‘Not bad, but it demands patience.’

’And who more patient than I?  But let us talk of that poor Mrs. Jacox and her girls.  You feel that you know them pretty well from my letters, don’t you?  Nothing more monstrous can be imagined than the treatment to which this poor woman has been subjected!  I couldn’t have believed that such dishonesty and brutality were possible in English families of decent position.  Her husband deserted her, her brother robbed her, her sister-in-law libelled her,—­the whole story is nauseating!’

‘You’re quite sure that she tells you the truth?’

Malkin glared with sudden resentment.

’The truth?  What! you also desire to calumniate her?  For shame, Earwaker!  A poor widow toiling to support herself in a foreign country, with two children dependent on her.’

‘Yes, yes, yes; but you seem to know very little of her.’

‘I know her perfectly, and all her circumstances!’

Mrs. Jacox was the mother of the two girls whom Malkin had escorted to Rouen, after an hour or so of all but casual acquaintance.  She and her history had come in a very slight degree under the notice of certain good-natured people with whom Malkin was on friendly terms, and hearing that the children, Bella and Lily, aged fourteen and twelve respectively, were about to undertake alone a journey to the Continent, the erratic hero felt it incumbent upon him to see them safe at their mother’s side.  Instead of returning forthwith, he lingered in Normandy for several weeks, striking off at length, on the summons of a friend, to Orleans, whence he was only to-day returned.  Two or three letters had kept Earwaker informed of his movements.  Of Mrs. Jacox he wrote as he now spoke, with compassionate respect, and the girls, according to him, were exquisite models of budding maidenhood.

‘You haven’t told me,’ said Earwaker, calmly fronting the indignant outburst, ‘what her circumstances are—­at present.’

‘She assists an English lady in the management of a boardinghouse,’ Malkin replied, with an air which forbade trivial comment.  ’Bella and Lily will of course continue their studies.  I daresay I shall run over now and then to see them.’

’May I, without offence, inquire if either of these young ladies seems suitable for the ideal training of which you spoke?’

Malkin smiled thoughtfully.  He stood with his legs apart and stroked his blond beard.

’The surmise is not unnatural.  Well, I confess that Bella has inspired me with no little interest.  She is rather mature, unfortunately; I wish she had been Lily’s age.  We shall see; we shall see.’

Musing, he refilled his pipe, and gossip was prolonged till something after one o’clock.  Malkin was never known to retire willingly from an evening’s congenial talk until the small hours were in progress.