? Contrite, he saw his dreadful error.
    »Harry! I declare!« was all he was allowed to say. Mrs. Cogglesby marched
back to her chair, and recommenced the repast in majestic silence.
    Andrew sighed; he attempted to do the same. He stuck his fork in the
blanched whiskerage of his marmoset, and exclaimed: »I can't!«
    He was unnoticed.
    »You do not object to plain diet?« said Harriet to Louisa.
    »Oh, no, in verity!« murmured the Countess. »However plain it be! Absence of
appetite, dearest. You are aware I partook of luncheon at mid-day with the
Honourable and Reverend Mr. Duffian. You must not look condemnation at your Louy
for that. Luncheon is not conversion!«
    Harriet observed that this might be true; but still, to her mind, it was a
mistake to be too intimate with dangerous people. »And besides,« she added, »Mr.
Duffian is no longer the Reverend. We deprive all renegades of their spiritual
titles. His worldly ones let him keep!«
    Her superb disdain nettled the Countess.
    »Dear Harriet!« she said, with less languor, »You are utterly and totally
and entirely mistaken. I tell you so positively. Renegade! The application of
such a word to such a man! Oh! and it is false, Harriet: quite! Renegade means
one who has gone over to the Turks, my dear. I am most certain I saw it in
Johnson's Dictionary, or an improvement upon Johnson, by a more learned author.
But there is the fact, if Harriet can only bring her - shall I say stiff-necked
prejudices to envisage it?«
    Harriet granted her sister permission to apply the phrases she stood in need
of, without impeaching her intimacy with the most learned among lexicographers.
    »And is there no such thing as being too severe?« the Countess resumed.
»What our enemies call unchristian!«
    »Mr. Duffian has no cause to complain of us,« said Harriet.
    »Nor does he do so, dearest. Calumny may assail him; you may utterly denude
him -«
    »Adam!« interposed Andrew, distractedly listening. He did not disturb the
Countess's flow.
    »You may vilify and victimize Mr. Duffian, and strip him of the honours of
his birth, but, like the Martyrs, he will still continue the perfect nobleman.
Stoned, I assure you that Mr. Duffian would preserve his breeding. In character
he is exquisite