host suddenly remembered. 'I thought the Freddys were
coming by that four-thirty as well as----'

'No--nobody but me.' She threw her many-tailed boa on the back of the
chair that Paul Filey had drawn up for her between the hostess and the
place where Borrodaile had been sitting.

'There are two more good trains before dinner----' began Lord John.

'Oh, didn't I tell you,' said his wife, as she gave the cup just filled
for the new-comer into the nearest of the outstretched hands--'didn't I
tell you I had a note from Mrs. Freddy by the afternoon post? They
aren't coming.'

Out of a little chorus of regret, came Borrodaile's slightly mocking,
'Anything wrong with the precious children?'

'She didn't mention the children--nor much of anything else--just a
hurried line.'

'The children were as merry as grigs yesterday,' said Vida, looking at
their uncle across the table. 'I went on to the Freddys' after the Royal
Academy. No!' she put her cup down suddenly. 'Nobody is to ask me how I
like my own picture! The Tunbridge children----'

'That thing Hoyle has done of you,' said Lord Borrodaile, deliberately,
'is a very brilliant and a very misleading performance.'

'Thank you.'

Filey and Lord John, in spite of her interdiction, were pursuing the
subject of the much-discussed portrait.

'It certainly is one aspect of you----'

'Don't you think his Velasquez-like use of black and white----'

'The tiny Tunbridges, as I was saying,' she went on imperturbably, 'were
having a teafight when I got there. I say "fight" advisedly.'

'Then I'll warrant,' said their uncle, 'that Sara was the aggressor.'

'She was.'

'You saw Mrs. Freddy?' asked Lady John, with an interest half amused,
half cynical, in her eyes.

'For a moment.'

'She doesn't confess it, I suppose,' the hostess went on, 'but I imagine
she is rather perturbed;' and Lady John glanced at Borrodaile with her
good-humoured, worldly-wise smile.

'Poor Mrs. Freddy!' said Vida. 'You see, she's taken it all quite
seriously--this Suffrage nonsense.'

'Yes;' Mrs. Freddy's brother-in-law had met Lady John's look with the
same significant smile as that lady's own--'Yes, she's naturally feeling
rather crestfallen--perhaps she'll _see_ now!'

'Mrs. Freddy crestfallen, what about?' said Farnborough. But he was much
preoccupied at that moment in supplying Lady Sophia with bits of toast
the exact size for balancing on the Bedlington's nose. For the benefit
of his end