ames never did.

The next day Lady Drakmanton made some marked variations in her usual
toilet effects. She dressed her hair in an unaccustomed manner, and put
on a hat that added to the transformation of her appearance. When she
had made one or two minor alterations she was sufficiently unlike her
usual smart self to produce some hesitation in the greeting which the
Misses Smithly-Dubb bestowed on her in the club-lobby. She responded,
however, with a readiness which set their doubts at rest.

"What is the Carlton like for lunching in?" she asked breezily.

The restaurant received an enthusiastic recommendation from the three
sisters.

"Let's go and lunch there, shall we?" she suggested, and in a few
minutes' time the Smithly-Dubb mind was contemplating at close quarters a
happy vista of baked meats and approved vintage.

"Are you going to start with caviare? I am," confided Lady Drakmanton,
and the Smithly-Dubbs started with caviare. The subsequent dishes were
chosen in the same ambitious spirit, and by the time they had arrived at
the wild duck course it was beginning to be a rather expensive lunch.

The conversation hardly kept pace with the brilliancy of the menu.
Repeated references on the part of the guests to the local political
conditions and prospects in Sir James's constituency were met with vague
"ahs" and "indeeds" from Lady Drakmanton, who might have been expected to
be specially interested.

"I think when the Insurance Act is a little better understood it will
lose some of its present unpopularity," hazarded Cecilia Smithly-Dubb.

"Will it? I dare say. I'm afraid politics don't interest me very much,"
said Lady Drakmanton.

The three Miss Smithly-Dubbs put down their cups of Turkish coffee and
stared. Then they broke into protesting giggles.

"Of course, you're joking," they said.

"Not me," was the disconcerting answer; "I can't make head or tail of
these bothering old politics. Never could, and never want to. I've
quite enough to do to manage my own affairs, and that's a fact."

"But," exclaimed Amanda Smithly-Dubb, with a squeal of bewilderment
breaking into her voice, "I was told you spoke so informingly about the
Insurance Act at one of our social evenings."

It was Lady Drakmanton who stared now. "Do you know," she said, with a
scared look around her, "rather a dreadful thing is happening. I'm
suffering from a complete loss of memory. I can't even think who I am. I
remembe