m, she
having turned away, she led him this time out of the room. She had a
horror of the name, the name that was in her mind and that was
apparently on his lips, though his tone was so singular, so
contemplative. 'My dear girl, she's with Lady Ringrose--what do you say
to that?' he exclaimed, as they passed along the corridor to the
staircase.

'With Lady Ringrose?'

'They went over on Tuesday--they are knocking about there alone.'

'I don't know Lady Ringrose,' Laura said, infinitely relieved that the
name was not the one she had feared. Lionel leaned on her arm as they
went downstairs.

'I rather hope not--I promise you she has never put her foot in this
house! If Selina expects to bring her here I should like half an hour's
notice; yes, half an hour would do. She might as well be seen with----'
And Lionel Berrington checked himself. 'She has had at least fifty----'
And again he stopped short. 'You must pull me up, you know, if I say
anything you don't like!'

'I don't understand you--let me alone, please!' the girl broke out,
disengaging herself with an effort from his arm. She hurried down the
rest of the steps and left him there looking after her, and as she went
she heard him give an irrelevant laugh.

IV

She determined not to go to dinner--she wished for that day not to meet
him again. He would drink more--he would be worse--she didn't know what
he might say. Besides she was too angry--not with him but with
Selina--and in addition to being angry she was sick. She knew who Lady
Ringrose was; she knew so many things to-day that when she was
younger--and only a little--she had not expected ever to know. Her eyes
had been opened very wide in England and certainly they had been opened
to Lady Ringrose. She had heard what she had done and perhaps a good
deal more, and it was not very different from what she had heard of
other women. She knew Selina had been to her house; she had an
impression that her ladyship had been to Selina's, in London, though she
herself had not seen her there. But she had not known they were so
intimate as that--that Selina would rush over to Paris with her. What
they had gone to Paris for was not necessarily criminal; there were a
hundred reasons, familiar to ladies who were fond of change, of
movement, of the theatres and of new bonnets; but nevertheless it was
the fact of this little excursion quite as much as the companion that
excited Laura's disgust.

She was not rea