oxious to her mistress, filled with tears as she accepted her
discharge. And Mrs. Ogilvie, descending the broad staircase of the
house with her air of magnificence, her jewels, and her red hair,
rapped her fan suddenly and sharply on the palm of her hand, so that
the delicate tortoise-shell sticks were broken. 'Why does she look at
me like that?' she said fiercely below her breath. 'I am glad I
dismissed her, and I am glad she cried! Why should not some one else
suffer as well as I?'

'You are not really tiresome, Jane,' she said after dinner, as the two
sat together on a couch. 'I have never known another engaged young
lady whom I did not avoid; but you are distressing yourself quite
unnecessarily about me. When I look tired, for instance, you may take
it as a sure sign that I am bored; nothing ever really makes me feel
ill except dullness.'

'Still,' urged Jane, 'Peter and I want it so much. We think if you
were to get advice from a doctor it would make us feel so much happier
about you.'

'I never allow any one to discuss my health with me,' said Mrs. Ogilvie
coldly; 'it is only a polite way of pointing out to one that one is
looking plain.'

Jane took one of her hands in hers with an impulsive gesture, and
printed a kiss upon it.

'Do sit upon me when I begin to bore you or to say the wrong thing! I
believe, for a woman, I am quite unpardonably clumsy and tactless.'

'Have you ever discovered,' said Mrs. Ogilvie, 'that tact is becoming a
little overdone, and that it generally succeeds in accentuating a
difficult situation, or in making it impossible? Women are horribly
tactful as a rule, and that is why men's society is preferable to
theirs. If you tread on a man's foot he will no doubt forgive you,
while admitting that the blow was painful; but a woman smiles and tries
to look as though she really enjoyed it.'

'Promise never to endure me in silence,' said Jane, laughing, 'even
when I am most tactless!'

'Silent endurance is hardly my character,' said Mrs. Ogilvie, screwing
up her eyes. 'I dismissed Forder before dinner because she annoyed me.'

'Please take Forder to your heart again tomorrow morning,' said Jane;
'she keeps Martin in such a good temper.'

'No,' said Mrs. Ogilvie; 'I shall get a new maid when I go up to London
in November. Forder has had round eyes for such a long time, and she
is hopelessly stupid about doing my hair.'

Mrs. Ogilvie always spoke about her hair with a touc