in,
in tears in the shrubbery walk, with the creature bullying and
threatening her. She explained that the fellow, who is one of the
onion-sellers from a French lugger recently arrived at Exmouth full of
similar vermin, knew her at her home in Normandy, and was, in fact, her
lover there. On discovering her here by accident while disposing of his
wares, he wanted to renew the old relations, and has been hanging about
for the last month with that intention. He has found out that during the
last week Louise has been coquetting with some summer visitor staying in
the town. She did not mention this second Lothario's name, but I
gathered that he was putting up at the _Plume Hotel_."

"Ah!" said Nugent, who had been listening politely, "that does not tell
us much, for I was informed this morning that the _Plume_ is full to
overflowing just now. Well, dear lady, I cannot presume to criticise
your drastic measures. It seems to me to depend on Mademoiselle Aubin's
inclinations. If she prefers the Frenchman, you have acted somewhat
severely; if the gentleman at the _Plume_ is the favoured swain, you
have played the good mistress in protecting your servant from a
nuisance."

Aunt Sarah, quaintly valuing the opinion of the man she disliked, nodded
reflectively. "I'll find out which she likes best," she said. "It won't
be the foreigner, I think, she being a girl of sense. She'd be as silly
as Violet would have been if she'd accepted that blackamoor who had the
impudence to propose to her at the beginning of the London season."

Montague Maynard let off one of his mighty bellows. "That was cheek if
you like," he said, "though my little girl very soon sent him off with a
flea in his ear. But you are forgetting, Aunt Sarah, that the boot was
on the other leg in the case that made the Maharajah of Sindkhote the
laughing-stock of London. The onion-seller is a compatriot of his
inamorata. By the way, Nugent--you were pretty thick with his
Highness--how did he take his knock-out?"

Travers Nugent looked across the table at Leslie Chermside through the
wealth of hot-house flowers, pondering his reply with greater
deliberation than it seemed to demand.

"As you know," he said at length, "the Maharajah left England within a
few days of the ball at Brabazon House, where I understood that his
discomfiture took place. I saw very little of him in the interval. Like
all men worthy of the name who have set out to win a great prize and
have met