and yet this was the very man as to whom her brother had cautioned her!
And what an odious man he was--in Lady Susanna's estimation! A
puppy,--an absolute puppy! Good-looking, impudent, familiar, with a
light visage, and continually smiling! All those little gifts which
made him so pleasant to Lady George were stains and blemishes in the
eyes of Lady Susanna. To her thinking, a man,--at any rate a
gentleman,--should be tall, dark, grave, and given to silence rather
than to much talk. This Jack chattered about everything, and hardly
opened his mouth without speaking slang. About half-past three, when
they had been chattering in the drawing-room for an hour, after having
chattered over their lunch for a previous hour, Mrs. Houghton made a
most alarming proposition. "Let us all go to Berkeley Square and play
bagatelle."

"By all means," said Jack. "Lady George, you owe me two new hats
already."

Playing bagatelle for new hats! Lady Susanna felt that if ever there
could come a time in which interference would be necessary that time
had come now. She had resolved that she would be patient; that she
should not come down as an offended deity upon Lady George, unless
some sufficient crisis should justify such action. But now surely, if
ever, she must interpose. Playing at bagatelle with Jack De Baron for
new hats, and she with the prospect before her of being Marchioness of
Brotherton! "It's only one," said Lady George gaily, "and I daresay
I'll win that back to-day. Will you come, Susanna?"

"Certainly not," said Lady Susanna, very grimly. They all looked at
her, and Jack De Baron raised his eyebrows, and sat for a moment
motionless. Lady Susanna knew that Jack De Baron was intending to
ridicule her. Then she remembered that should this perverse young woman
insist upon going to Mrs. Houghton's house with so objectionable a
companion, her duty to her brother demanded that she also should go. "I
mean," said Lady Susanna, "that I had rather not go."

"Why not?" asked Mary.

"I do not think that playing bagatelle for new hats is--is--the best
employment in the world either for a lady or for a gentleman." The
words were hardly out of her mouth before she herself felt that they
were overstrained and more than even this occasion demanded.

"Then we will only play for gloves," said Mary. Mary was not a woman to
bear with impunity such an assault as had been made on her.

"Perhaps you will not mind giving it up till George co