find
it out till I married you. Till then I was in hopes that the secret
would die with me; but after that it was fruitless to attempt to conceal
the fact any longer."

"We're all going to be silly to-day," said the hostess; "that's part of
the treat."

"It won't be much of a treat to some of us," Lord Robert retorted. "I
remember when I was a little chap going to have tea at the Mershire's;
and when I wanted to gather some of their most ripping orchids, Lady M.
said I might go into the garden and pick mignonette instead. 'Thank
you,' I replied in my most dignified manner, 'I can pick mignonette at
home; that's no change to me!' Now, that's the way with everything; it's
no change to some people to pick mignonette."

"Or to some to pick orchids," added Lord Stonebridge.

"Or to some to pick oakum." And Lord Bobby sighed again.

"Even Elisabeth isn't going to be clever to-day," continued Lady
Silverhampton. "She promised me she wouldn't; didn't you, Elisabeth?"

Every one looked admiringly at the subject of this remark. Elisabeth
Farringdon was the fashion just then.

"She couldn't help being clever, however hard she tried," said the
President.

"Couldn't I, though? Just you wait and see."

"If you succeed in not saying one clever thing during the whole of this
picnic affair," Lord Bobby exclaimed, "I'll give you my photograph as a
reward. I've got a new one, taken sideways, which is perfectly sweet. It
has a profile like a Greek god--those really fine and antique statues,
don't you know? whose noses have been wiped out by the ages. The British
Museum teems with them, poor devils!"

"Thank you," said Elisabeth. "I shall prize it as an incontrovertible
testimony to the fact that neither my tongue nor your nose are as sharp
as tradition reports them to be."

Lord Bobby shook his finger warningly. "Be careful, be careful, or
you'll never get that photograph. Remember that every word you say will
be used against you, as the police are always warning me."

"I'm a little tired to-day," Lady Silverhampton said. "I was taken in to
dinner by an intelligent man last night."

"Then how came he to do it?" Lord Robert wondered.

"Don't be rude, Bobby: it doesn't suit your style; and, besides, how
could he help it?"

"Well enough. Whenever I go out to dinner I always say in an aside to my
host, 'Not Lady Silverhampton; anything but that.' And the consequence
is I never do go in to dinner with you. It isn't disagreea