"I am so glad you saw that he got away safely," said Crowl, "I wasn't quite sure he would."
"Yes; but I wish some cowardly fool hadn't turned off the gas. I like men to see that they are beaten."
"But it seemed—easier," faltered Crowl.
"Easier!" echoed Denzil, taking a deep draught of bitter. "Really, Peter, I'm sorry to find you always will take such low views. It may be easier, but it's shabby. It shocks one's sense of the Beautiful."
Crowl ate his bread and cheese shame-facedly.
"But what was the use of breaking your head to save him?" said Mrs. Crowl with an unconscious pun. "He must be caught."
"Ah, I don't see how the Useful does come in, now," said Peter thoughtfully. "But I didn't think of that at the time."
He swallowed his water quickly and it went the wrong way and added to his confusion. It also began to dawn upon him that he might be called to account. Let it be said at once that he wasn't. He had taken too prominent a part.
Meantime, Mrs. Wimp was bathing Mr. Wimp's eye, and rubbing him generally with arnica. Wimp's melodrama had been, indeed, a sight for the gods. Only, virtue was vanquished and vice triumphant. The villain had escaped, and without striking a blow.