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157 good and all. And I think—there might be no more relapses! Yes, I thought that before; but I was wrong, you see—after yesterday! Besides, this week would bring us within a few weeks of Scotland; and, after Scotland, we shall have our own little place to go to—I have almost settled upon one. But if I went with her, restraint would go with her too.'

His voice had broken more than once with emotion. He commanded it with difficulty, and it became hard and unnatural. In this tone he added:—

'Besides—it would be more comfortable for every one if she were not here with the Lord Chief Justice.'

'Do not say that—do not think that!' said Lady Bligh; but faintly, because her heart echoed his sentiment.

'Oh, there's no disguising it—my wife's dynamite!' said Alfred, with a short, harsh laugh. 'Only an explosion is worse at one time than at another.' He went hastily from the room, neither of them having referred more directly to the scandalous scene in the Park.

He went straight to his wife, to try once more to coax her into accepting the Barringtons'