"I promised Mrs.Talbot to be there to-night," she added.
"Mrs.Talbot will excuse you when she knows why you were absent." "I don't know about that," said Irene.
"She must be a very unreasonable woman," remarked Emerson.
"That doesn't follow.

You could take me there, and Mrs.Talbot find me an escort home." "Who ?" Emerson knit his brows and glanced sharply at his wife.

The suggestion struck him unpleasantly.
"Major Willard, for instance;" and she smiled in a half-amused, half-mischievous way.
"You cannot be in earnest, surely ?" said Emerson.
"Why not ?" queried his wife, looking at her husband with calm, searching eyes.
"You would not, in the first place, be present there, unaccompanied by your husband; and, in the second place, I hardly think my wife would be seen in the street, at night, on the arm of Major Willard." Mr.Emerson spoke like a man who was in earnest.
"Do you know anything wrong of Major Willard ?" asked Irene.
"I know nothing about him, right or wrong," was replied.

"But, if I have any skill in reading men, he is very far from being a fine specimen." "Why, Hartley! You have let some prejudice come in to warp your estimation." "No.

I have mixed some with men, and, though my opportunity for observation has not been large, I have met two or three of your Major Willards.