hat a while back you sought to pick with me. What I
touched on to her mother was the peculiar range of aspects and interests
she's compelled to cultivate by the special intimacies that Mrs. Brook
permits her. There they are--and that's all I said. Judge them for
yourself."

The Duchess had risen as she spoke, which was also what Mrs. Donner and
Mrs. Brookenham had done; and Mr. Mitchett was on his feet as well, to
act on this last admonition. Mrs. Donner was taking leave, and there
occurred among the three ladies in connexion with the circumstance a
somewhat striking exchange of endearments. Mr. Mitchett, observing this,
expressed himself suddenly as diverted. "By Jove, they're kissing--she's
in Lady Fanny's arms!" But his hilarity was still to deepen. "And Lady
Fanny, by Jove, is in Mrs. Brook's!"

"Oh it's all beyond ME!" the Duchess cried; and the little wail of her
baffled imagination had almost the austerity of a complaint.

"Not a bit--they're all right. Mrs. Brook has acted!" Mitchy went on.

"Ah it isn't that she doesn't 'act'!" his interlocutress ejaculated.

Mrs. Donner's face presented, as she now crossed the room, something
that resembled the ravage of a death-struggle between its artificial
and its natural elegance. "Well," Mitchy said with decision as he caught
it--"I back Nanda." And while a whiff of derision reached him from the
Duchess, "Nothing HAS happened!" he murmured.

As to reward him for an indulgence that she must much more have divined
than overheard the visitor approached him with her sweet bravery of
alarm. "I go on Thursday to my sister's, where I shall find Nanda
Brookenham. Can I take her any message from you?"

Mr. Mitchett showed a rosiness that might positively have been
reflected. "Why should you dream of her expecting one?"

"Oh," said the Duchess with a cheer that but half carried off her
asperity, "Mrs. Brook must have told Mrs. Donner to ask you!"

The latter lady, at this, rested strange eyes on the speaker, and they
had perhaps something to do with a quick flare of Mitchy's wit. "Tell
her, please--if, as I suppose, you came here to ask the same of her
mother--that I adore her still more for keeping in such happy relations
with you as enable me thus to meet you."

Mrs. Donner, overwhelmed, took flight with a nervous laugh, leaving Mr.
Mitchett and the Duchess still confronted. Nothing had passed between
the two ladies, yet it was as if there were a trace of something in