I will not. Why should I grind my very soul
out for a woman with no vestige of heart
or feeling? I'll send her to live in the
country. I'll sell her wardrobe by auction.
Millions wouldn't suffice for her extravagance.
I have told her that I don't know
which way to turn for money—and people
think me a rich man! Well they may when
they see my wife decked out in finery worth
a king's ransom. Good Heavens, that
opal! To-morrow I will make the jeweller
take it back. She shall not keep it. It is
too monstrous."

The next day, Mrs. Frost, who occasionally
made small concessions that cost her nothing,
when it became apparent that she had
roused her husband's indignation too far,
offered to drive with him to Bedford-square
and call on Mrs. Lovegrove.

As they drove along eastward—Mrs.
Frost looking very lovely in a morning toilet,
for the perfection of whose freshness and
simplicity she had paid more to a fashionable
milliner than Mrs. Lovegrove had ever
expended on her finest gown—Mr. Frost
lectured his wife as to the necessity of
comporting herself with civility towards
the Lovegroves.

"I'm sure I don't know how to conciliate
Mrs. Lovegrove," said the fair Georgina.
"Unless, perhaps, by rigging myself out
from top to toe in Tottenham-court-road,
and arriving at her door in the dirtiest
hackney cab to be found! I really would
have borrowed Davis's bonnet and shawl to
come in, if I had thought of it: only, to be
sure, Davis is always three months nearer
the fashion than the Lovegrove women!"

Davis was Mrs. Frost's cook.

Mr. Frost went into his office, saying
that he would open his letters and go up
to pay his respects to Mrs. Lovegrove by-
and-bye. His wife was ushered into the
drawing-room, and waited while her card
was carried to the mistress of the house.

Mrs. Lovegrove's drawing-room was hot.
The sun shone full in through the windows,
and there was a large fire in the grate.
There was a stuffy fragrance in the room
from two enormous jars of pot-pourri
which stood one on each side of a gilt
cabinet. On the cabinet were ranged what
Mrs. Lovegrove called her knick-knacks:
namely, a huge dish of wax fruit under a
glass cover; some Dresden figures; a
Chinese puzzle; a Swiss châlet in
card-board; two or three cups of egg-shell
porcelain; a statuette in the so-called Parian
ware, representing a Spanish lady clothed
entirely in lace flounces, and with a foot
about the same length as her nose; and a
blue satin box worked with white beads.

The furniture was drab, with red satin
stripes in it. The curtains were the same.
The carpet was also drab with splotchy
cabbage-roses strewn over it. On the
mantelpiece, stood a French clock, flanked
on either side by a cut-glass lustre, whose
pendent prisms jingled and shook whenever
a foot crossed the floor. There was
a grand piano in the room, dark and
shining. There was also a harp, muffled
up in brown holland. On the round centre
table, covered by a red velvet cloth, were
disposed with geometrical accuracy several
books. The middle of the table was occupied
by a silver card-basket full of visiting cards,
on the top of which was conspicuously
displayed a large ticket, setting forth that
General Sir Thomas Dobbs and Lady
Dobbs requested the honour of Mrs. and
the Misses Lovegrove's company at a ball,
bearing date two months back.

Mrs. Frost waited. The house was very
still. She peeped into one book after the
other. Two were photograph albums.
A third was a little volume of poetry
containing verses in celebration of the month
of May, which the Puseyite writer looked on
exclusively from an ecclesiastical point of
view, and styled the "Month of Mary."
There was likewise a Peerage, bound in red
and gold.

Mrs. Frost waited. She had ensconced
herself in a comfortable corner of the couch.
It was hot, and the end of it was that Mrs.
Frost fell into a doze, and woke with a
sensation of being looked at.

Mrs. Lovegrove stood opposite to her.

Mrs. Lovegrove had a pale smooth face,
with a pale, smooth, and very high forehead.
Her features were not uncomely. Her
eyes must have been pretty in youth;
well-shaped and of a soft dove-grey. Her teeth
were still sound and white. They projected
a little, and her upper lip was too long for
beauty. It gave one the idea, when her
mouth was closed, of being stretched too
tightly, in the effort to cover the long
prominent teeth.

Mrs. Lovegrove was lean and flat-chested.
She wore a lead-coloured merino gown,
and a small cap with lead-coloured satin
ribbons. She affected drabs, and browns,
and leaden, or iron, greys in her own attire.
She said they were "so chaste."

"How do you do, Mrs. Frost? I am so
shocked to have kept you waiting. Your
visits are such unexpected and rare favours,
that if I could have come instantly, I would."