“Well, my lady, I’m not troubled much with that sort o’ thing. Bashfulness is a bit in the way in my trade.”

“I’ll set it down to ignorance, then.”

“That’s better, my lady. I never set up as a scholar.”

“Let me appeal to you, then. Have you done nothing to stop it?”

“Never knowed a word about it till this blessed morning, my lady,” cried the trainer, with a display of indignation. “Saucy young baggage! She kep’ it dark enough.”

“Ha! Then you have some feeling for your child.”

“Feeling, my lady! Course I have; and I’d ha’ stopped it if I’d known before it was too late.”

Lady Lisle winced as if she had received a blow. “But, now—now,” she cried, “you will immediately take proceedings?”

“Bah! What can I do?”

“Oh, think, man, of the wrong it is doing me.”