glance.
'Your face is pale and pasty; if it isn't powder, it's bad digestion.'

'Miss Whichello!' cried the outraged spinster.

'I'm an old woman, my dear, and you must allow me to speak my mind. I'm
sure Mrs Pansey always does.'

'You need not be so very unpleasant! No, really!'

'The truth is always unpleasant,' said Mrs Pansey, who could not forbear
a thrust even at her own guest, 'but Miss Whichello doesn't often hear
it,' with a dig at her rival. 'Come away, Daisy. Mr Cargrim, next time
you preach take for your text, "The tongue is a two-edged sword."'

'Do, Mr Cargrim,' cried Miss Whichello, darting an angry glance at Mrs
Pansey, 'and illustrate it with the one to whom it particularly
applies.'

'Ladies! ladies!' remonstrated Cargrim, while both combatants ruffled
their plumes like two fighting cocks, and the more timid of the
spectators scuttled out of the way. How the situation would have ended
it is impossible to say, as the two ladies were equally matched, but
George saved it by advancing to greet Miss Whichello. When the little
woman saw him, she darted forward and shook his hand with unfeigned
warmth.

'My dear Captain Pendle,' she cried, 'I am so glad to see you; and thank
you for your noble conduct of last night.'

'Why, Miss Whichello, it was nothing,' murmured the modest hero.

'Indeed, I must say it was very valiant,' said Cargrim, graciously. 'Do
you know, ladies, that Miss Arden was attacked last night by a tramp and
Captain Pendle knocked him down?'

'Oh, really! how very sweet!' cried Daisy, casting an admiring look on
George's handsome face, which appealed to her appreciation of manly
beauty.

'What was Miss Arden doing to place herself in the position of being
attacked by a tramp?' asked Mrs Pansey, in a hard voice. 'This must be
looked into.'

'Thank you, Mrs Pansey, I have looked into it myself,' said Miss
Whichello. 'Captain Pendle, come home with me to luncheon and tell me
all about it; Mr Cargrim, you come also.'

Both gentlemen bowed and accepted, the former because he wished to see
Mab, the latter because he knew that Captain Pendle did not want him to
come. As Miss Whichello moved off with her two guests, Mrs Pansey
exclaimed in a loud voice,--

'Poor young men! Luncheon indeed! They will be starved. I know for a
fact that she weighs out the food in scales.' Then, having had the last
word, she went home in triumph.

CHAPTER XI

MISS WHICHELLO'S LUNCHEON-PARTY