‘Not in the least,’ said Mr Glascock.  ’Caroline and I have had a little dispute, but we have settled it without coming to blows.’

’I do not suppose that an English gentleman ever absolutely strikes a lady,’ said Wallachia Petrie.

‘Not except on strong provocation,’ said Mr Glascock.  ’In reference to wives, a stick is allowed as big as your thumb.’

‘I have heard that it is so by the laws of England,’ said Wallachia.

‘How can you be so ridiculous, Wally!’ said Caroline.  ’There is nothing that you would not believe.’

‘I hope that it may never be true in your case,’ said Wallachia.

A couple of days after this Miss Spalding found that it was absolutely necessary that she should explain the circumstances of her position to Nora.  She had left Nora with the purpose of performing a very high-minded action, of sacrificing herself for the sake of her lover, of giving up all her golden prospects, and of becoming once again the bosom friend of Wallachia Petrie, with this simple consolation for her future life, that she had refused to marry an English nobleman because the English nobleman’s condition was unsuited to her.  It would have been an episode in female life in which pride might be taken, but all that was now changed.  She had made her little attempt, had made it, as she felt, in a very languid manner, and had found herself treated as a child for doing so.  Of course she was happy in her ill success; of course she would have been broken-hearted had she succeeded.  But, nevertheless, she was somewhat lowered in her own esteem, and it was necessary that she should acknowledge the truth to the friend whom she had consulted.  A day or two had passed before she found herself alone with Nora, but when she did so she confessed her failure at once.

‘You told him all, then?’ said Nora.

’Oh yes, I told him all.  That is, I could not really tell him.  When the moment came I had no words.’

‘And what did he say?’

‘He had words enough.  I never knew him to be eloquent before.’

‘He can speak out if he likes,’ said Nora.

’So I have found with a vengeance.  Nobody was ever so put down as I was.  Don’t you know that there are times when it does not seem to be worth your while to put out your strength against an adversary?  So it was with him.  He just told me that he was my master, and that I was to do as he bade me.’

‘And what did you say?’

‘I promised to be a good girl,’ said Caroline, ’and not to pretend to have any opinion of my own ever again.  And so we kissed, and were friends.’

‘I dare say there was a kiss, my dear.’

’Of course there was, and he held me in his arms, and comforted me, and told me how to behave just as you would do a little girl.  It’s all over now, of course; and if there be a mistake, it is his fault.  I feel that all responsibility is gone from myself, and that for all the rest of my life I have to do just what he tells me.’