few members of
the House of Commons were present. A hot debate on some detail of the
naval estimates had been sprung on ministers, and the whips on each side
had been peremptorily keeping their forces in hand.

"I don't see either William or Kitty," said Mary, after a careful
scrutiny not, in truth, directed to the discovery of the Ashes.

"No. I suppose William was kept, and Kitty did not care to come alone."

Mary said nothing. But she was well aware that Kitty was never
restrained from going into society by the mere absence of her husband.
Meanwhile Lady Tranmore was lost in secret anxieties as to what might
have happened in Hill Street. Had there been a quarrel? Something
certainly had gone wrong, or Kitty would be here.

"Lady Kitty not arrived?" said a voice, like a macaw's, beside her.

Elizabeth turned and shook hands with Lady Parham. That extraordinary
woman, followed everywhere by the attentive observation of the crowd,
had never asserted herself more sharply in dress, manner, and coiffure
than on this particular evening--so it seemed, at least, to Lady
Tranmore. Her ample figure was robed in the white satin of a bride, her
wrinkled neck disappeared under a weight of jewels, and her bright
chestnut wig, to which the diamond tiara was fastened, positively
attacked the spectator, so patent was it and unashamed. Unashamed, too,
were the bold, tyrannous eyes, the rouge-spots on either cheek, the
strength of the jaw, the close-shut ability of the mouth. Elizabeth
Tranmore looked at her with a secret passion of dislike. Her English
pride of race, no less than the prejudices of her taste and training,
could hardly endure the fact that, for William's sake, she must make
herself agreeable to Lady Parham.

Agreeable, however, she tried to be. Kitty had seemed to her tired in
the afternoon, and had, no doubt, gone to bed--so she averred.

Lady Parham laughed.

"Well, she mustn't be tired the night of my party next week--or the
skies will fall. I never took so much trouble before about anything in
my life."

"No, she must take care," said Lady Tranmore. "Unfortunately, she is not
strong, and she does too much."

Lady Parham threw her a sharp look.

"Not strong? I should have thought Lady Kitty was made on wires. Well,
if she fails me, I shall go to bed--with small-pox. There will be
nothing else to be done. The Princess has actually put off another
engagement to come--she has heard so much of Lady Kitty's re