among your acquaintances!"

Claire felt the hopelessness of trying to justify herself, and relapsed
into silence also, the while she made a pretence of eating one of the
most miserable meals of her life. According to his mother, Erskine was
"quite disgusted" with the whole affair! Claire's heart sank at the
thought, but she acknowledged that such an attitude would be no more
than was natural under the circumstances. A soldier himself, Captain
Fanshawe would be a stern judge of a soldier's fraud, while his _amour
propre_ could not fail to be touched. Claire had too much faith to
believe that his displeasure would be extended to herself, yet she was
miserably aware that it was through her instrumentality that he had been
brought in contact with the scandal.

In the midst of much confusion of mind only one thing seemed certain,
and that was that it was impossible to face a tennis party that
afternoon. Claire made her apologies to Mrs Fanshawe as she rose from
the table, and they were accepted with disconcerting readiness.

"Of course! Of course! I never imagined that you would. Under the
circumstances it would be most awkward. I expect by afternoon the story
will be the talk of the place. Your friend, I understand, is still
ignorant of the man's real station? What do you propose to do with
regard to breaking the news?"

"In. I'm going to write. I thought I would sit in my room and compose
a letter.--It will be difficult!"

"Difficult!" Mrs Fanshawe repeated the word with disagreeable
emphasis. "Impossible, I should say, and, excuse me! cruel into the
bargain. To open a letter from a friend, expecting to find the ordinary
chit-chat, and to receive a blow that shatters one's life! My dear,
it's unthinkable! You cannot seriously intend it."

"You think it would be better if I _told_, her?" Claire asked
anxiously. "I wondered myself, but naturally I dreaded it, and I
thought she might prefer to get over the first shock alone. I had
decided to write first, and see her later on. But you think..."

"I think decidedly that you ought to break the news in person. You can
lead up to it more naturally in words. Even the most carefully written
letters are apt to read coldly; perhaps the more care we spend on them,
the more coldly they read."

"Yes, that's true, that's quite true, but I thought it would be better
not to wait. She is staying at home just now. I don't think he will
visit her there, for