that nowadays."

"No, my dear, you don't. But, of course, it will go off splendidly.
We're all so anxious that Rachel shall have a good time. It's the least
we can do for your mother."

At the mention of Rachel Lady Adela's thoughts straightened for a
second; _that_ was where the confusion lay. It had been Rachel's
attitude to the portrait that had caused Lady Adela's own momentary
disloyalty. Of course Rachel hated her grandmother. Lady Adela made a
little sound with her fingers, a sound like the clicking of needles.

"As far as Rachel is concerned nobody can tell possibly how she's going
to take it all. I don't pretend to understand her."

Lady Carloes found this interesting--she bent forward a little. "We're
all greatly excited about her. You've kept her away from all of us and
one hears such different accounts of her. And of course her success is
most important--as things are just now."

Lady Adela answered, "I can tell you nothing. She isn't in the least
like any of us, and I don't suppose for a moment that she'll listen to
anybody. She made a friend of May Eversley in Munich, and I don't think
that was the best thing for her. But you know--I've talked about this to
you before."

Not only had Lady Adela talked; all of them had done so. In the
Beaminster camp this appearance that Rachel was about to make was of the
last importance. There were enemies, redoubtable enemies, in the field.
Rachel Beaminster's bow to the world was for the very reason that all
the world was watching, a responsibility for them all.

But there were many rumours. Rachel was not to be relied upon--she hated
her grandmother, she was strange and foreign and morose. Lady Carloes
was not happy about it, and Lady Adela's attitude now was anything but
reassuring.

John Beaminster came in. Lady Carloes liked him because he was
good-tempered and injudicious. He told her a number of things that
nobody else ever told her, and he had so simple a mind that extracting
news from it was as easy as taking plums from a pudding. He did not come
over to them at once, but stood laughing with Lord Crewner and his
brother. He would come, however, in a moment, so Lady Carloes made a
last hurried plunge at her friend.

"What's this I hear, my dear, about Frank Breton?"

"Yes, it's perfectly true. He's come back, and has taken rooms quite
near here. He wrote to mother----"

Lady Carloes took this in with a gulp of delight. "My dear Adela! What
did he