"Those were the shocking political ones, I suppose?" he asked.
"No; I read most of those. These were against religion and----"
"Morality, papa said," she answered, with the same grave look of inquiry.
Dale rose and held out his hand, saying petulantly:
"Good-by, Miss Delane. You evidently don't think me fit to enter your house."
"Oh, now I have made you angry. I have no right to speak about it, and, of course, I know nothing about it. Only----"
"Some things are right and some are wrong, aren't they?"
"Oh, granted--if we could only agree which were which."
"As to some we have been told. And I don't think that about you at all--I really don't. Do wait till papa comes."
Dale sat down again. He had had his lecture; experience told him that a lecture from such lecturers is tolerably often followed by a petting, and the pettings were worth the lectures. In this instance he was disappointed. Janet did not pet him, though she displayed much friendliness, and he took his leave (for the Squire did not appear) feeling somewhat put out.
Approbation and applause were dear to this man, who seemed to spend his energies in courting blame and distrust; whatever people thought of his writings, he wished them to be fascinated by him. He was not sure that he had fascinated Miss Delane.
"I should like to see more of her," he thought. "She's rather an odd girl."
Mr. Delane's late return from his public duties was attributable simply to Colonel Smith's obstinacy. He and the Colonel sat together on the bench, and very grievously did they quarrel over the case of a man who had been caught in the possession of the body of a fresh-killed hare. They differed first as to the policy of the law, secondly as to its application, thirdly as to its vindication; and when the Vicar of Denborough, who was a county justice and present with them, sided with the Squire on all these points, the Colonel angrily denounced the reverend gentleman as a disgrace, not only to the judicial bench, but even to his own cloth. All this took time, as did also the Colonel's cross-examination of the constable in charge of the case, and it was evening before the dispute was ended, and a fine imposed. The Colonel paid the fine, and thus everyone, including the law and the prisoner, was in the end satisfied.