ger,' she said.

'That's where you'll end!' retorted Mrs. Rushmore, without the
slightest regard for facts. 'That's where they all end! There, or in
the divorce courts--or both! It's the same thing!' she concluded
triumphantly.

'I never heard a divorce court compared to a music-hall,' observed
Margaret.

'You know exactly what I mean,' answered Mrs. Rushmore angrily. 'Don't
take me up at every word! Contradicting isn't reasoning. Anybody can
contradict.'

'And besides,' continued Margaret, growing cooler as the other grew
warm, 'one cannot be divorced till one has been married.'

'Oh, you'll marry soon enough!' cried Mrs. Rushmore, infuriated by her
calm. 'You'll marry an adventurer with dyed moustaches and a sham
title, who'll steal your money and beat you! And though I am your dear
mother's best friend, Margaret, I'm bound to say that it will serve you
right. It's useless to deny it. It will serve you right.'

'It would certainly serve me right if I married the individual with the
dyed moustaches,' said Margaret, smiling in spite of herself.

'I'm glad you agree with me at last. It shows that you're not so
perfectly mad as you seemed. If you had gone on as you were talking at
first I should certainly have had a mad doctor to examine you. As it
is, I don't believe you're fit to have all that money. You mean well, I
daresay. But you have no sense. None at all.'

Margaret laughed and took the opportunity of the lull in the battle to
escape to her own room. A moment later Mrs. Rushmore followed her and
knocked at the door.

'I'm sure you've had nothing to eat all day,' she called out anxiously,
before Margaret could answer.

Margaret opened and put her head out, to explain that she had lunched,
but she did not say where.

'Oh, very well!' answered Mrs. Rushmore, unwilling to show that her
anger had subsided so soon. 'That's all I wanted to know.'

Like most Anglo-Saxons, she vaguely connected regular meals with
morality.

When Margaret was alone she realised that she was more disturbed by
Lushington's unexpected appearance at Logotheti's door than she had
thought it possible to be. At the time, she had been surprised to see
him and a little hurt by his manner, but she had attributed the latter
to his natural shyness. Now that she could think quietly about the
meeting, she remembered his eyes and the look of cold resentment she
had seen in them for the first time since she had known him. He had no
right