'But what has all this to do with your flirting with Elizabeth?' I
demanded.

He seemed so overcome at this very natural comment on my part that for
a moment I thought he was going to have a seizure of some sort.
'I--I--_flirt_, and with Elizabeth?' he repeated when he had slightly
recovered himself. 'Madame, what do you mean to insinuate?'

He drew himself up to his full height of six feet three, and, looking
at him as he towered above me with his mane of disordered hair and
flowing beard, I could not help thinking he rather resembled Samson in
one of his peevish moods. The indignation that possessed him seemed
sincere enough, but the circumstances of the case utterly bewildered
me. I was gazing at him in perplexity when Henry came out of the study.

'What's all this parleying in the hall, noise without, voices heard
"off," and so forth?' he demanded.

William gave me such an agonized look of entreaty I decided I would say
nothing about what had just occurred. 'It is only I endeavouring to
get our friend William to rub his feet on the mat,' I retorted
cheerfully. 'But let us go into the consulting chamber.'

[Illustration: Henry, being a Scotsman, likes argument.]

William followed me into the study and took his usual seat at the
fireside in a dejected manner. Then went through a strange gymnastic.

He had just started to swing his feet up to the mantelpiece when he