will go
further, I will say so deeply humiliating--that I have forbidden her to
refer to them again in my presence, or to mention them in the future
to any living creature besides myself. You are acquainted with those
circumstances, Mr. Troy; and you will understand my indignation when I
first learnt that my sister's child had been suspected of theft. I
have not the honor of being acquainted with Lady Lydiard. She is not
a Countess, I believe? Just so! Her husband was only a Baron. I am not
acquainted with Lady Lydiard; and I will not trust myself to say what I
think of her conduct to my niece."

"Pardon me, madam," Mr. Troy interposed. "Before you say any more about
Lady Lydiard, I really must beg leave to observe--"

"Pardon _me_," Miss Pink rejoined. "I never form a hasty judgment. Lady
Lydiard's conduct is beyond the reach of any defense, no matter how
ingenious it may be. You may not be aware, sir, that in receiving my
niece under her roof her Ladyship was receiving a gentlewoman by birth
as well as by education. My late lamented sister was the daughter of a
clergyman of the Church of England. I need hardly remind you that,
as such, she was a born lady. Under favoring circumstances, Isabel's
maternal grandfather might have been Archbishop of Canterbury, and have
taken precedence of the whole House of Peers, the Princes of the blood
Royal alone excepted. I am not prepared to say that my niece is equally
well connected on her father's side. My sister surprised--I will not add
shocked--us when she married a chemist. At the same time, a chemist
is not a tradesman. He is a gentleman at one end of the profession of
Medicine, and a titled physician is a gentleman at the other end. That
is all. In inviting Isabel to reside with her, Lady Lydiard, I repeat,
was bound to remember that she was associating herself with a young
gentlewoman. She has _not_ remembered this, which is one insult; and she
has suspected my niece of theft, which is another."

Miss Pink paused to take breath. Mr. Troy made a second attempt to get a
hearing.

"Will you kindly permit me, madam, to say a few words?"

"No!" said Miss Pink, asserting the most immovable obstinacy under
the blandest politeness of manner. "Your time, Mr. Troy, is really too
valuable! Not even your trained intellect can excuse conduct which is
manifestly _in_excusable on the face of it. Now you know my opinion of
Lady Lydiard, you will not be surprised to hear that I declin