rain.

She opened the second envelope, her jeweller's account. At the very
first item she gave another scream, fainter than the first, for her mind
was getting hardened against such shocks.

'To re-setting a suite of amethysts, with forty-four finest Brazilian
brilliants, three hundred and fifteen pounds.'

Then followed the trifles she had bought at different visits to the
shop--casual purchases, bought on the impulse of the moment. These
swelled the account to a little over eight hundred pounds. Lesbia sat
like a statue, numbed by despair, appalled at the idea of owing over two
thousand pounds.

CHAPTER XXX.

'ROSES CHOKED AMONG THORNS AND THISTLES.'

Lady Lesbia ate no luncheon that day. She went to her own room and had a
cup of tea to steady her nerves, and sent to ask Lady Kirkbank to go to
her as soon as she had finished luncheon. Lady Kirkbank's luncheon was a
serious business, a substantial leisurely meal with which she fortified
herself for the day's work. It enabled her to endure all the fatigues of
visits and park, and to be airily indifferent to the charms of dinner;
for Lady Kirkbank was not one of those matrons who with advanced years
take to _gourmandise_ as a kind of fine art. She gave good dinners,
because she knew people would not come to Arlington Street to eat bad
ones; but she was not a person who lived only to dine. At luncheon she
gave her healthy appetite full scope, and ate like a ploughman.

She found Lesbia in her white muslin dressing-gown, with cheeks as pale
as the gown she wore. She was sitting in an easy chair, with a low
tea-table at her side, and the two bills were in the tray among the
tea-things.

'Have you any idea how much I owe Seraphine and Cabochon?' she asked,
looking up despairingly at Lady Kirkbank.

'What, have they sent in their bills already?'

'Already! I wish they had sent them before. I should have known how
deeply I was getting into debt.'

'Are they very heavy?'

'They are dreadful! I owe over two thousand pounds. How can I tell Lady
Maulevrier that? Two thousand one hundred pounds! It is awful.'

'There are women in London who would think very little of owing twice as
much,' said Lady Kirkbank, in a comforting tone, though the fact,
seriously considered, could hardly afford comfort. 'Your grandmother
said you were to have _carte blanche_. She may think that you have been
just a little extravagant; but she can hardly be angry with you for
havin