And the General being fairly started, continued to talk most volubly, though, from the peculiarities of his diction, he did not get to the point of his story so quickly as might have been expected. In the meantime Frere contrived to rejoin Rose, and seating himself almost in her pocket, observed in a low voice—
“Well, I’ve managed to tame the dragon, you see.”
“Yes, and persuaded him to dine with you instead of upon you,” returned Rose, smiling; “but tell me,” she added, “how did you contrive to satisfy him. Were you forced to apologise?”
“Oh, I put the thing before him in a common sense point of view,” replied Frere; “appealed to his good feeling as if I had faith in his possessing such a quality, which is the sure way to call it forth if it exists, and wound up by telling him that if he was sorry for his share in the business, I was ditto for mine, which mode of treatment proved eminently successful. He applied a forcible adjective to the word ass, and stigmatising himself by the epithet thus compounded, he shook me heartily by the hand, and straightway we became the greatest friends, ratifying the contract by an exchange of dinner invitations, without which ceremony no solemn league and covenant is considered binding in England in these days of enlightened civilisation.”
“Well, I think you have behaved more bravely and nobly than if you had fought twenty duels,” exclaimed Rose, fairly carried away by her admiration. “I esteem and respect you, and—and——!” Here she stopped short, and a bright blush overspread her pale features, for she perceived Frere’s fine eyes fixed upon her with an expression of delighted surprise which she had never observed in them before, and which brought to her recollection the fact that, after all, he was a living man not many years older than herself, instead of some magnanimous, philosophical, and heroic character in history done into modern English and animated by magic for her express delectation. The light in Frere’s eyes had, however, faded, and he had relapsed into his accustomed manner ere he replied: “I can’t say I see anything to make a fuss about in it. I wasn’t going to allow a half-tipsy boy to insult me with impunity, so I pitched him over the banisters as a trifling hint to that effect; neither did I feel inclined to shoot him, or let him shoot me, by way of compensation for his tumble, because it would have been equally wrong and irrational so to do, and I went and told him my ideas in plain English, which was the natural course to pursue, and produced the desired effect. I really can’t see anything remarkable in it all.”
“I fancy that I do,” replied Rose archly; “but of course we poor women cannot pretend to be competent judges in such a case.”
“You know you don’t think anything of the kind,” returned Frere; “you’ve got a very good opinion of your own judgment, so don’t tell stories.”
“Without either admitting or denying the truth of your assertion, I should like to know what grounds you have for making it?” asked Rose.
“I can soon tell you, if that’s all you want to know,” returned Frere. “You could not act for yourself with the quiet decision I have before now seen you exercise when occasion required it unless you possessed self-appreciation sufficient to give you the requisite degree of confidence.”
Ere Rose could reply their conversation was interrupted by a piercing shriek followed by an extreme bustle and confusion on the other side of the room. The cause was soon explained. Excited with wine, and artfully drawn on by Bracy, General Gudgeon had told one of his “gentleman’s stories” to Miss MacSalvo, on the strength of which outrageous anecdote that zealous advocate for establishing a Female Missionary Society for the Prevention of Polygamy amongst the Aborigines of the North-Eastern District of South-West Australia had seen fit to go off into a perfect tornado of the most alarming hysterics!