n others. She is a dear, she's
ticklish, and at eighty-four she laughed! She looked into my eyes and saw
a field with never a man in it--just the shadow of a man. She admitted
the ten cancelled the one, and exactly named to me, by comparison with
the erring Amy, the sinner I am and must be, if I 'm to live. So, dear,
the end of it is,' and Mrs. Lawrence put her fingers to a silken amber
bow at Aminta's throat, and squared it and flattened it with dainty
precision, speaking on under dropped eyelids, intent upon her work, 'Lady
de Culme will be happy to welcome you whenever it shall suit the Countess
of Ormont to accompany her disreputable friend. But what can I do, dear?'
She raised her lids and looked beseechingly. 'I was born with this taste
for the ways and games and style of men. I hope I don't get on badly with
women; but if I 'm not allowed to indulge my natural taste, I kick the
stable-boards and bite the manger.'

Aminta threw her arms round her, and they laughed their mutual peal.

Caressing her still, Aminta said: 'I don't know whether I embrace a boy.'

'That idea comes from a man!' said Mrs. Lawrence. It was admitted. The
secretary was discussed.

Mrs. Lawrence remarked: 'Yes, I like talking with him; he's bright. You
drove him out of me the day I saw him. Doesn't he give you the idea of a
man who insists on capturing you and lets it be seen he doesn't care two
snaps of a finger?'

Aminta petitioned on his behalf indifferently: 'He 's well bred.'

She was inattentive to Mrs. Lawrence's answer. The allusion of the Queen
of Blondes had stung her in the unacknowledged regions where women
discard themselves and are most sensitive.

'Decide on coming soon to Lady de Culme,' said Mrs. Lawrence. 'Now that
her arms are open to you, she would like to have you in them. She is
old--. You won't be rigorous? no standing on small punctilios?

She would call, but she does not--h'm, it is M. le Comte that she does
not choose to--h'm. But her arms are open to the countess. It ought to be
a grand step. You may be assured that Lady Charlotte Eglett would not be
taken into them. My great-aunt has a great-aunt's memory. The Ormonts are
the only explanation--if it 's an apology--she can offer for the
behaviour of the husband of the Countess of Ormont. You know I like him.
I can't help liking a man who likes me. Is that the way with a boy, Mr.
Secretary? I must have another talk with the gentleman, my dear. You are
Aminta t