Cashel Byron's Profession

He stopped; his brave bearing vanished; he became limp and

shamefaced. Lucian, without a word, withdrew with Lydia to the

adjoining apartment, and left him staring after her with wistful

eyes and slackened jaw.

In the meantime Mrs. Hoskyn, an earnest-looking young woman, with

striking dark features and gold spectacles, was looking for Lord

Worthington, who betrayed a consciousness of guilt by attempting to

avoid her. But she cut off his retreat, and confronted him with a

steadfast gaze that compelled him to stand and answer for himself.

"Who is that gentleman whom you introduced to me? I do not recollect

his name."

"I am really awfully sorry, Mrs. Hoskyn. It was too bad of Byron.

But Webber was excessively nasty."

Mrs. Hoskyn, additionally annoyed by apologies which she had not

invited, and which put her in the ignominious position of a

complainant, replied coldly, "Mr. Byron! Thank you; I had

forgotten," and was turning away when Lydia came up to introduce

Alice, and to explain why she had entered unannounced. Lord

Worthington then returned to the subject of Cashel, hoping to

improve his credit by claiming Lydia's acquaintance with him.

"Did you hear our friend Byron's speech, Miss Carew? Very

characteristic, I thought."

"Very," said Lydia. "I hope Mrs. Hoskyn's guests are all familiar

with his style. Otherwise they must find him a little startling."

"Yes," said Mrs. Hoskyn, beginning to wonder whether Cashel could be

some well-known eccentric genius. "He is very odd. I hope Mr. Webber

is not offended."

"He is the less pleased as he was in the wrong," said Lydia.

"Intolerant refusal to listen to an opponent is a species of

violence that has no business in such a representative

nineteenth-century drawing-room as yours, Mrs. Hoskyn. There was a

fitness in rebuking it by skilled physical violence. Consider the

prodigious tact of it, too! One gentleman knocks another half-way

across a crowded room, and yet no one is scandalized."

"You see, Mrs. Hoskyn, the general verdict is 'Served him right,'"

said Lord Worthington.

"With a rider to the effect that both gentlemen displayed complete

indifference to the comfort of their hostess," said Lydia. "However,

men so rarely sacrifice their manners to their minds that it would

be a pity to blame them. You do not encourage conventionality, Mrs.

Hoskyn?"

"I encourage good manners, though certainly not conventional

manners."

"And you think there is a difference?"

"I FEEL that there is a difference," said Mrs. Hoskyn, with dignity.