A well-dressed lady ... walked slowly across the meadow to the group.
[page [288].
“Sir, you are, I protest, vastly polite,” said Mrs. Mathews; “but I am sure you will not be hard upon poor Captain Mathews’ frailties. ’Tis his misfortune to be over-susceptible to the charms of new faces. Who can blame him when the trait was born with him? After all, constancy is an acquired virtue.”
“True, madam, quite true,” said Major O’Teague. “But, Mrs. Mathews, I beg of you to permit me to say that if a gentleman who is fortunate enough to be married to so charming a lady as yourself does not acquire constancy, we may well distrust your theory.”
“I vow, sir, you overwhelm a simple country-bred woman with your flattery,” said she. “But I see that Mr. Long and his friends are feeling bored by our philosophy. Still, I should like to ask Mr. Long if his experience can suggest better advice to a woman married to so erratic a gentleman as Captain Mathews than to make the best of a bad bargain? Lud, sir, to spend my days weeping on a bed because of my husband’s peccadilloes would only be to make myself miserable, without improving him. After all, he doesn’t annoy me much. I have a fortune of my own and two sweet children, and he is a good deal from home, so that I have much to be thankful for. Come along, captain: you see that no one here wishes to fight with you. Perhaps at home you will have a better chance. A husband, if he keeps his eyes open, can always find some one at home to quarrel with. At the worst, there are always servants to be sworn at. ’Tis a great ease to a man’s mind to know that he can always curse a groom or a wife or a dog without being called to account. Come along, captain; you have still got your grooms and your wife left to you. You know as well as I do that if you succeeded in captivating a young beauty at Bath—though I haven’t seen much of this beauty—you would swear at her within the month as heartily as you do at me.”
Mathews looked quite ready to swear at her at that moment. He restrained himself, however, and, after only a short pause, went hastily to where his sword was still swaying on its point. He drew it out of the wound it had made in the earth, and rammed it back into its sheath. Then he took the shortest route to the gate; only when he was passing the line of trees in the plantation did he turn and glance back at the group whom he had left. The expression upon his face was one of disappointed malice; no trace of repentance was to be seen there.
With a laugh, his wife followed him, the golden-haired little boy running by her side. She cast an apologetic glance at the gentlemen, and they all made profound bows.
“Major O’Teague, I ask your pardon, sir, for having caused you to come here on a business which I knew must prove fruitless,” said Mr. Long.
“Sir,” said Major O’Teague, “I think that if there’s to be an apology it should come from me. But I give you my word of honour, sir, I had no idea that the fellow was such a rascal: he has only been acquainted with me for three days. I guessed that he was bad enough. But think of that last coup of his, sir—trying to run you through the body while you were speaking! By my soul, Mr. Long, ’tis something of a pity that he was obstructed in time, for ’twould be a pleasure to all of us to see him hanged for such an act.”