ved the way to a lovers' meeting. Captain
Peignton looked supremely content, and how sensible of the girl to stick
to blue!

Teresa, however, was not at all self-congratulatory on the subject of
her gown. If she had had a day's notice,--even half a day, she could
have dashed up to town, and equipped herself in something newer, and
more worthy of the occasion. She was miserably conscious that the blue
dress was past its freshness, and had already paid several visits to the
Court.

The dinner which followed was lengthy and stately. It was also
undeniably dull! At one end of the table Grizel chatted and leant her
elbows on the table, and kept the Squire in complacent chuckles of
laughter, but their gaiety, instead of spreading, seemed to throw into
greater contrast the forced conversations of the other guests. With the
exception of Teresa Mallison they were all elderly people, who had
driven over many miles of country to perform a social duty, and neither
expected nor received any pleasure in its execution. They all knew each
other, met at intervals, and discoursed together on the same well-worn
topics. Lady Rose talked garden, and was an expert on bulbs. Sir
George Everley, her partner, described all bulbs vaguely as daffodils,
lived simply and solely for "huntin'," and would in all probability die
for it another day. The Vicar's partner lived for bridge, and his wife
had fallen to the share of an old general who looked upon food and drink
as the events of the moment, and had no intention of losing a good
chance. Long years of dining out had made him an expert at the game of
starting his partner on a hobby during an interval between courses, and
then giving her her head until the next stop. "Well! and what is the
latest good work in the parish, Mrs Evans, eh, what?" he enquired
genially, as he waited the advent of fish, and then with the help of a,
"Did you though? God bless my soul! Pine work! fine work!" he was left
free to enjoy his fare, and make mental notes on the flavouring of the
sauce, until such time as he had leisure to give Mrs Evans another lead
on the vexed question of the choir.

Lord Kew sat on Cassandra's left side, and threw depressed crumbs of
conversation to his companion, the stout wife of the huntin' squire. It
was said of Lord Kew that he could not talk for five minutes together
without bringing in the German invasion, and his conviction that England
was galloping headlong to the d