ith the brazen announcement that she was foregoing the privilege
for the purpose of joining a bridge-party was only one more instance of
her deplorable lack of discrimination.

The ladies were disposed, however, to feel that her departure--now
that she had performed the sole service she was ever likely to render
them--would probably make for greater order and dignity in the impending
discussion, besides relieving them of the sense of self-distrust which
her presence always mysteriously produced. Mrs. Ballinger therefore
restricted herself to a formal murmur of regret, and the other members
were just grouping themselves comfortably about Osric Dane when the
latter, to their dismay, started up from the sofa on which she had been
seated.

"Oh wait--do wait, and I'll go with you!" she called out to Mrs. Roby;
and, seizing the hands of the disconcerted members, she administered
a series of farewell pressures with the mechanical haste of a
railway-conductor punching tickets.

"I'm so sorry--I'd quite forgotten--" she flung back at them from the
threshold; and as she joined Mrs. Roby, who had turned in surprise at
her appeal, the other ladies had the mortification of hearing her say,
in a voice which she did not take the pains to lower: "If you'll let
me walk a little way with you, I should so like to ask you a few more
questions about Xingu...."

III

The incident had been so rapid that the door closed on the departing
pair before the other members had time to understand what was
happening. Then a sense of the indignity put upon them by Osric Dane's
unceremonious desertion began to contend with the confused feeling that
they had been cheated out of their due without exactly knowing how or
why.

There was a silence, during which Mrs. Ballinger, with a perfunctory
hand, rearranged the skilfully grouped literature at which her
distinguished guest had not so much as glanced; then Miss Van Vluyck
tartly pronounced: "Well, I can't say that I consider Osric Dane's
departure a great loss."

This confession crystallised the resentment of the other members, and
Mrs. Leveret exclaimed: "I do believe she came on purpose to be nasty!"

It was Mrs. Plinth's private opinion that Osric Dane's attitude toward
the Lunch Club might have been very different had it welcomed her in the
majestic setting of the Plinth drawing-rooms; but not liking to reflect
on the inadequacy of Mrs. Ballinger's establishment she sought a
roundabout