"Pooh, Sarah!" said Mr. Lovegrove,
"why not?"

"Why not, Augustus? I wonder that
you can ask! Her insolence and airs are
beyond bearing. And did you see her
gown?"

"A black gown, wasn't it? It looked
very neat, I thought."

"Very neat! If three guineas a yard
paid for that lace it was trimmed with, I
will undertake to eat it. That is all,
Augustus!"

But yet that proved to be not quite all.
And Mr. Lovegrove had to listen to a long
dialogue of Mrs. Frost's misdemeanours
until he fell asleep.

Mrs. Frost, on her side, declared that
she had been bored to death; that she had
never seen anything like the collection of
creatures Mrs. Lovegrove had gathered
together; that they had stared at her (Mrs.
Frost) as though she were a savage; and,
finally, she asked her husband what good
had been done by her going there at all,
seeing that that absurd woman, Mrs. Lovegrove,
had chosen to take offence, and walk
away from her in a huff!

"No good at all, Georgina, certainly,
unless you had chosen to behave with
civility, when you knew how I had begged
you to do so."

"Really, I was perfectly civil. But Mrs.
Lovegrove tried to quarrel with me because
I was not overwhelmed by the honour and
glory of being introduced to that ridiculous
old Irishwoman."

"Lady Tallis's niece is, at all events, a
very charming creature."

"The golden-haired girl in white? Well
—y—yes, perhaps; I did not speak to her.
Certainly she did look different from the
rest of the menagerie. Those apple-green
creatures! Ugh! They set one's teeth on
edge!"

"You must call on Lady Tallis, Georgina.
I want you to invite the girl, and take her
into society a little."

"I? Thanks! I really cannot undertake
to chaperon all your clients' daughters
and nieces and cousins, and Heaven knows
who besides."

"Lady Tallis Gale is no client of mine."

"Why do you trouble yourself about
her, then?"

"Georgy, listen: this is a case in which
your woman's tact might help me, if you
would employ it on my behalf. There is
some foolish love-making going on between
Hugh Lockwood and this Miss Desmond.
The girl is very different from what I
expected. She is very attractive. Now, it
is very undesirable that young Lockwood
should entangle himself in an engagement
just now."

"Very undesirable for whom?" asked
Mrs. Frost, yawning behind her fan.

"For—for his mother."

"Really? Well, I should suppose that
very trenchant little person with the
prominent jaw, was able to manage her
own business. I am sorry I cannot get up
any vital interest in the case. But you
know Mrs. Lockwood is not a dear old
friend of mine!"

Mrs. Frost had for a brief time been
really a little jealous of Zillah. And she
still affected to be so whenever it suited
her, although she felt tolerably certain that
whatever were the strong tie of intimacy
between her husband and Mrs. Lockwood,
there was no echo in it of an old love story.

"Suppose I tell you, Georgina," said
Mr. Frost, suppressing the hot words of
anger which rose to his lips, "that it would
be undesirable for me that Hugh Lockwood
should engage himself at present."

"What in the world can it matter to
you, Sidney?"

"There are business complications in the
affair," said Mr. Frost, slowly. "But so
long as these young folks are living in the
same house and meeting daily, and so long
as the young lady is mewed up there without
any other society, it is in the course of
nature that she should be disposed to fancy
herself in love with Hugh. As to him, I
am not surprised. The girl is full of sense
and sweetness, and is a thorough gentlewoman.
But Hugh ought to marry some
one with a few thousands of her own. Miss
Desmond is very poor. Now, if you would
give her some pleasant society, and let her
see something of the world, there would be
less fear of Hugh and her making fools of
themselves."

"Why don't you tell all that to Lady
What's-her-name?" asked Mrs. Frost, leaning
back in the carriage with closed eyes.
"She is the proper person to look after her
niece."

"I tell it to you because I choose that you
shall obey me!" thundered Mr. Frost,
furiously. "It is not enough that you drive me
half wild by your extravagance; that you
have neither common gratitude nor common
consideration for your husband; but you
thwart me at every turn. You deliberately
put yourself in opposition to every plan or
wish of mine. You disgust by your
arrogance the people whom it is my special