But Clotilde had coughed in the damp morning air, and it would, he urged, be dangerous for her to be exposed to it.

Had not the lady heard her cough?
She had, but personally she was obliged to go; with her child lying ill she could not remain.

'But, madam, do you hear that cough again?
Will you drag her out with such a cough as that ?' The lady repeated 'My child!' Clotilde said it had been agreed they should descend this day; her friend must be beside her child.

Alvan thundered an 'Impossible!' The child was recovering; Clotilde was running into danger: he argued with the senseless woman, opposing reason to the feminine sentiment of the maternal, and of course he was beaten.

He was compelled to sit and gnaw his eloquence.