. Petherton will tell you--I wonder he hasn't told you before--why
Mrs. Grendon, though not perhaps herself quite the rose, is decidedly in
these days too near it."

"Oh Petherton never tells me anything!" Mitchy's answer was brisk and
impatient, but evidently quite as sincere as if the person alluded to
had not been there.

The person alluded to meanwhile, fidgeting frankly in his chair,
alternately stretching his legs and resting his elbows on his knees,
had reckoned as small the profit he might derive from this colloquy. His
bored state indeed--if he was bored--prompted in him the honest impulse
to clear, as he would have perhaps considered it, the atmosphere. He
indicated Mrs. Donner with a remarkable absence of precautions.
"Why, what the Duchess alludes to is my poor sister Fanny's stupid
grievance--surely you know about that." He made oddly vivid for a moment
the nature of his relative's allegation, his somewhat cynical treatment
of which became peculiarly derisive in the light of the attitude
and expression, at that minute, of the figure incriminated. "My
brother-in-law's too thick with her. But Cashmore's such a fine old ass.
It's excessively unpleasant," he added, "for affairs are just in that
position in which, from one day to another, there may be something that
people will get hold of. Fancy a man," he robustly reflected while
the three took in more completely the subject of Mrs. Brookenham's
attention--"fancy a man with THAT odd piece on his hands! The beauty of
it is that the two women seem never to have broken off. Blest if they
don't still keep seeing each other!"

The Duchess, as on everything else, passed succinctly on this. "Ah how
can hatreds comfortably flourish without the nourishment of such regular
'seeing' as what you call here bosom friendship alone supplies? What are
parties given for in London but--that enemies may meet? I grant you it's
inconceivable that the husband of a superb creature like your sister
should find his requirements better met by an object comme cette petite,
who looks like a pen-wiper--an actress's idea of one--made up for a
theatrical bazaar. At the same time, if you'll allow me to say so, it
scarcely strikes one that your sister's prudence is such as to have
placed all the cards in her hands. She's the most beautiful woman in
England, but her esprit de conduite isn't quite on a level. One can't
have everything!" she philosophically sighed.

Lord Petherton met her com