OF TWO MISCREANTS 211 



cigarette, which was accepted with the air of 

 conferring a favour, and drew him out upon his 

 hateful amusements. 



His collection of butterflies was practically 

 complete, it appeared. No, he had only been 

 at it five years, but this part of the country was 

 exceptionally rich in lepidoptera. He was quite 

 modest about his success. The wife as you 

 might say, the cook she was at his elbow, but he 

 spoke of her as if she were in the other hemisphere 

 had helped him. As he spoke I became aware 

 that the said wife was moving anxiously about 

 in front of me, net in hand, and, following the 

 direction of her eagle gaze, which darted hither 

 and thither from one side to the other of my own 

 head, I perceived a dusky shape, a moth, that 

 fluttered against the sky. The lust of capture 

 shone in the woman's eye. Her mouth was tense 

 with its suppression, for she knew that the usages 

 of polite society forbid the moth-netting of un- 

 known men. Yet the prospect of the insect 

 escaping was agonising to her. I courteously 

 moved aside. The net swooped. She retired 

 in the direction of the death-bottle. 



Yes, the wife was very keen, very keen. She 

 had, that evening, taken taken, not caught, is 

 the word emarginata. It was she who last 

 summer discovered the Marbled Whites in a 



