much less likely at Hendon
than here."

"Less likely than here! Here it would have been impossible. There
they will be all together."

"No such thing," said the Marquis. "Hampstead will see to that. And
she too has promised me."

"Pshaw!" exclaimed the Marchioness.

"I won't have you say Pshaw to me when I tell you. Fanny always has
kept her word to me, and I don't in the least doubt her. Had she
remained here your treatment would have induced her to run away with
him at the first word."

"Lord Kingsbury," said the offended lady, "I have always done my duty
by the children of your first marriage as a mother should do. I have
found them to be violent, and altogether unaware of the duties which
their position should impose upon them. It was only yesterday that
Lord Hampstead presumed to call me irrational. I have borne a great
deal from them, and can bear no more. I wish you would have found
some one better able to control their conduct." Then, with a stately
step, she stalked out of the room. Under these circumstances, the
house was not comfortable to any of the inhabitants.

As soon as her ladyship had reached her own apartments after this
rough interview she seated herself at the table, and commenced a
letter to her sister, Lady Persiflage, in which she proceeded to
give a detailed account of all her troubles and sufferings. Lady
Persiflage, who was by a year or two the younger of the two, filled
a higher position in society than that of the Marchioness herself.
She was the wife only of an Earl; but the Earl was a Knight of the
Garter, Lord Lieutenant of his County, and at the present moment
Secretary of State for the Home Department. The Marquis had risen to
no such honours as these. Lord Persiflage was a peculiar man. Nobody
quite knew of what his great gifts consisted. But it was acknowledged
of him that he was an astute diplomat; that the honour of England was
safe in his hands; and that no more perfect courtier ever gave advice
to a well-satisfied sovereign. He was beautiful to look at, with his
soft grey hair, his bright eyes, and well-cut features. He was much
of a dandy, and, though he was known to be nearer seventy than sixty
years of age, he maintained an appearance of almost green juvenility.
Active he was not, nor learned, nor eloquent. But he knew how to hold
his own, and had held it for many years. He had married his wife when
she was very young, and she had become, first a distinguished beauty,