y: "What I mean is, that I know more of
Mrs. Norman than you do. I have heard of her--never mind how or where.
She is a lady who has been celebrated in the newspapers. Don't be
alarmed. She is no less a person than the divorced Mrs. Linley."

The two ladies looked at each other in blank dismay. Restrained by a
sense of conjugal duty, Mrs. Romsey only indulged in an exclamation.
Lady Myrie, independent of restraint, expressed her opinion, and said:
"Quite impossible!"

"The Mrs. Norman whom I mean," Mr. Romsey went on, "has, as I have been
told, a mother living. The old lady has been twice married. Her name is
Mrs. Presty."

This settled the question. Mrs. Presty was established, in her own
proper person, with her daughter and grandchild at the hotel. Lady Myrie
yielded to the force of evidence; she lifted her hands in horror: "This
is too dreadful!"

Mrs. Romsey took a more compassionate view of the disclosure. "Surely
the poor lady is to be pitied?" she gently suggested.

Lady Myrie looked at her friend in astonishment. "My dear, you must have
forgotten what the judge said about her. Surely you read the report of
the case in the newspapers?"

"No; I heard of the trial, and that's all. What did the judge say?"

"Say?" Lady Myrie repeated. "What did he not say! His lordship declared
that he had a great mind not to grant the Divorce at all. He spoke of
this dreadful woman who has deceived us in the severest terms; he
said she had behaved in a most improper manner. She had encouraged the
abominable governess; and if her husband had yielded to temptation, it
was her fault. And more besides, that I don't remember."

Mr. Romsey's wife appealed to him in despair. "What am I to do?" she
asked, helplessly.

"Do nothing," was the wise reply. "Didn't you say she was going away
to-morrow?"

"That's the worst of it!" Mrs. Romsey declared. "Her little girl Kitty
gives a farewell dinner to-morrow to our children; and I've promised to
take them to say good-by."

Lady Myrie pronounced sentence without hesitation. "Of course your girls
mustn't go. Daughters! Think of their reputations when they grow up!"

"Are you in the same scrape with my wife?" Mr. Romsey asked.

Lady Myrie corrected his language. "I have been deceived in the same
way," she said. "Though my children are boys (which perhaps makes a
difference) I feel it is my duty as a mother not to let them get into
bad company. I do nothing myself in an underhand way.