hts or the wrongs of
women is past my caring for now. Lord George must look after that."

"I am sure Lord George could not object to your going to the Marylebone
Institute," said Aunt Ju. "Lady Selina Protest is there every week, and
Baroness Banmann, the delegate from Bavaria, is coming next Friday."

"You'd find the Disabilities awfully dull, Lady George," said Guss.

"Everybody is not so flighty as you are, my dear. Some people do
sometimes think of serious things. And the Institute is not called the
Disabilities."

"What is it all about?" said Mary.

"Only to empower women to take their own equal places in the
world,--places equal to those occupied by men," said Aunt Ju
eloquently. "Why should one-half of the world be ruled by the _ipse
dixit_ of the other?"

"Or fed by their labours?" said the Dean.

"That is just what we are not. There are 1,133,500 females in
England----"

"You had better go and hear it all at the Disabilities, Lady George,"
said Guss. Lady George said that she would like to go for once, and so
that matter was settled.

While Aunt Ju was pouring out the violence of her doctrine upon the
Dean, whom she contrived to catch in a corner just before she left the
house, Guss Mildmay had a little conversation on her own part with Lady
George. "Captain De Baron," she said, "is an old friend of yours, I
suppose." She, however, had known very well that Jack had never seen
Lady George till within the last month.

"No, indeed; I never saw him till the other day."

"I thought you seemed to be intimate. And then the Houghtons and the De
Barons and the Germains are all Brothershire people."

"I knew Mrs. Houghton's father, of course, a little; but I never saw
Captain De Baron." This she said rather seriously, remembering what
Mrs. Houghton had said to her of the love affair between this young
lady and the Captain in question.

"I thought you seemed to know him the other night, and I saw you riding
with him."

"He was with his cousin Adelaide,--not with us."

"I don't think he cares much for Adelaide. Do you like him?"

"Yes, I do; very much. He seems to be so gay."

"Yes, he is gay. He's a horrid flirt, you know."

"I didn't know; and what is more, I don't care."

"So many girls have said that about Captain De Baron; but they have
cared afterwards."

"But I am not a girl, Miss Mildmay," said Mary, colouring, offended and
resolved at once that she would have no intimacy and as little
ac