“Why are the children allowed to wear such boots?” he asks Louisa.

“Mistress said....”

His wife said!

He goes for a walk by himself.

It is seven o’clock and dinner-time. The ladies have not yet returned to the hotel. The two first courses have been served when they arrive with flushed faces, talking and laughing loudly.

His wife and her friend are in high spirits and smell of cognac.

“What have you been doing with yourself all day, daddy?” she asks her husband.

“I went for a walk with the children.”

“Wasn’t Louisa there?”

“Oh! yes, but she was otherwise engaged.”