When finished, he cast it upon the table, returning to his newspaper.
"Hoots!" said he; "the woman's mad!" And then meditatively, after he had finished his newspaper paragraph: "What dealings have you ever had with her ?" "I never had any dealings with her." "When you get a letter from a strange woman"-- the father spoke with some heat--"the best thing that you can do with it is to put it in the fire." Now, Caius knew that his father had, as a usual thing, that kindly and simple way of looking at the actions of his fellow-men which is refinement, so that it was evident that the contents of the letter were hateful.

That was to be expected.

The point that aroused the son's curiosity was to know how far the father recognised an obligation imposed by the letter.

The letter would be hateful just in so far as it was considered worthy of attention.
"I suppose," said the young man dubiously, "that we can easily find out at Souris whether the statements in the letter are true or not ?" The father continued to read his paper.
The lamp upon the unpolished walnut table had no shade or globe upon it, and it glared with all the brilliancy of clean glass, and much wick and oil.

The dining-room was orderly as ever.