the most stylish women in London,"
laughed Miss Ramsbotham.

"You used to be a sensible woman," Peter reminded her.

"I want to live."

"Can't you manage to do it without--without being a fool, my dear."

"No," answered Miss Ramsbotham, "a woman can't. I've tried it."

"Very well," agreed Peter, "be it so."

Peter had risen. He laid his shapely, white old hand upon the woman's
shoulder. "Tell me when you want to give it up. I shall be glad."

Thus it was arranged. _Good Humour_ gained circulation and--of more
importance yet--advertisements; and Miss Ramsbotham, as she had
predicted, the reputation of being one of the best-dressed women in
London. Her reason for desiring such reputation Peter Hope had shrewdly
guessed. Two months later his suspicions were confirmed. Mr. Reginald
Peters, his uncle being dead, was on his way back to England.

His return was awaited with impatience only by the occupants of the
little flat in the Marylebone Road; and between these two the difference
of symptom was marked. Mistress Peggy, too stupid to comprehend the
change that had been taking place in her, looked forward to her lover's
arrival with delight. Mr. Reginald Peters, independently of his
profession, was in consequence of his uncle's death a man of means. Miss
Ramsbotham's tutelage, which had always been distasteful to her, would
now be at an end. She would be a "lady" in the true sense of the
word--according to Miss Peggy's definition, a woman with nothing to do
but eat and drink, and nothing to think of but dress. Miss Ramsbotham,
on the other hand, who might have anticipated the home-coming of her
quondam admirer with hope, exhibited a strange condition of alarmed
misery, which increased from day to day as the date drew nearer.

The meeting--whether by design or accident was never known--took place at
an evening party given by the proprietors of a new journal. The
circumstance was certainly unfortunate for poor Peggy, whom Bohemia began
to pity. Mr. Peters, knowing both women would be there and so on the
look-out, saw in the distance among the crowd of notabilities a superbly
millinered, tall, graceful woman, whose face recalled sensations he could
not for the moment place. Chiefly noticeable about her were her
exquisite neck and arms, and the air of perfect breeding with which she
moved, talking and laughing, through the distinguished, fashionable
throng. Beside her strutted, nervously aggressive, a v