The tiger-man leant over the wall, and Montagu caught him round the neck:
"Although we laughed and enjoyed it so," he whispered, "we are sorry, we really are."
The tiger-man kissed Montagu once more, but this time he said nothing at all.
CHAPTER XV
THE BETHUNE TEMPERAMENT
For courage mounteth with occasion.—KING JOHN.
"It is curious, is it not," Miss Esperance said to Mr. Wycherly, "how entirely those two dear boys differ in character. Sometimes I think that Montagu must be like his mother's family. He is certainly not like ours."
"I am not sure that fundamentally Montagu is so very unlike you, Miss Esperance. In some ways, too, he strikes me as resembling Edmund, though not on the surface. I don't think that you need feel disturbed. Montagu is a Bethune au fond, although he may seem milder and perhaps—er—less strenuous than Edmund."
Miss Esperance shook her head, unconvinced.
"No," she said, "from all I remember of my brothers and myself and from what I know of my dear father, I don't think Montagu is one of us. Edmund is, absolutely, a Bethune for good and ill—and there's a great deal of ill, mind, in our characters. But Montagu is too reflective, too slow to act. He is not impulsive, like the rest of us, and look how serene he is! He is hardly ever in a temper, and the Bethunes have always been so hot-tempered and high-spirited."