oachable means of drawing a
financial profit from the situation, there would have been no cloud on
her horizon. The truth was that her funds, as usual, were inconveniently
low; and to neither Dorset nor his wife could this vulgar embarrassment
be safely hinted. Still, the need was not a pressing one; she could worry
along, as she had so often done before, with the hope of some happy
change of fortune to sustain her; and meanwhile life was gay and
beautiful and easy, and she was conscious of figuring not unworthily in
such a setting.

She was engaged to breakfast that morning with the Duchess of Beltshire,
and at twelve o'clock she asked to be set ashore in the gig. Before this
she had sent her maid to enquire if she might see Mrs. Dorset; but the
reply came back that the latter was tired, and trying to sleep. Lily
thought she understood the reason of the rebuff. Her hostess had not been
included in the Duchess's invitation, though she herself had made the
most loyal efforts in that direction. But her grace was impervious to
hints, and invited or omitted as she chose. It was not Lily's fault if
Mrs. Dorset's complicated attitudes did not fall in with the Duchess's
easy gait. The Duchess, who seldom explained herself, had not formulated
her objection beyond saying: "She's rather a bore, you know. The only one
of your friends I like is that little Mr. Bry--HE'S funny--" but Lily
knew enough not to press the point, and was not altogether sorry to be
thus distinguished at her friend's expense. Bertha certainly HAD grown
tiresome since she had taken to poetry and Ned Silverton.

On the whole, it was a relief to break away now and then from the
Sabrina; and the Duchess's little breakfast, organized by Lord Hubert
with all his usual virtuosity, was the pleasanter to Lily for not
including her travelling-companions. Dorset, of late, had grown more than
usually morose and incalculable, and Ned Silverton went about with an air
that seemed to challenge the universe. The freedom and lightness of the
ducal intercourse made an agreeable change from these complications, and
Lily was tempted, after luncheon, to adjourn in the wake of her
companions to the hectic atmosphere of the Casino. She did not mean to
play; her diminished pocket-money offered small scope for the adventure;
but it amused her to sit on a divan, under the doubtful protection of the
Duchess's back, while the latter hung above her stakes at a neighbouring
table.

T