nity. Her refusal this morning to go to
Greenlaws was brusqueness itself. To my mind that young person gives
herself airs!' And the Duke of Sedbergh's sister drew herself up with a
rustle of all her ample frame.

'Yes, I was snubbed,' said Flaxman, unperturbed; 'that, however, is no
reason why she shouldn't find it attractive to go to-morrow night.'

'And you will let her see that, just because you couldn't get hold of
her, you have given up your Easter party and left your sister in the
lurch?'

'I never had excessive notions of dignity,' he replied composedly. 'You
may make up any story you please. The real fact is that I want to hear
Elsmere.'

'You had better go, my dear!' said her husband sardonically. 'I cannot
imagine anything more piquant than an atheistic slum on Easter Eve.'

'Nor can I!' she replied, her combativeness rousing at once. 'Much
obliged to you, Hugh. I will borrow my housekeeper's dress, and be ready
to leave here at half-past seven.'

Nothing more was said of Rose, but Flaxman knew that she would be asked,
and let it alone.

'Will his wife be there?' asked Lady Charlotte.

'Who? Elsmere's? My dear aunt, when you happen to be the orthodox wife
of a rising heretic, your husband's opinions are not exactly the
spectacular performance they are to you and me. I should think it most
unlikely.'

'Oh, she persecutes him, does she?'

'She wouldn't be a woman if she didn't!' observed Mr. Wynnstay, _sotto
voce_. The small dark man was lost in a great armchair, his delicate
painter's hands playing with the fur of a huge Persian cat. Lady
Charlotte threw him an eagle glance, and he subsided--for the moment.

Flaxman, however, was perfectly right. There had been a breeze. It had
been just announced to the master of the house by his spouse that
certain Socialist celebrities--who might any day be expected to make
acquaintance with the police--were coming to dine at his table, to
finger his spoons, and mix their diatribes with his champagne, on the
following Tuesday. Overt rebellion had never served him yet, and he knew
perfectly well that when it came to the point he should smile more or
less affably upon these gentry, as he had smiled upon others of the same
sort before. But it had not yet come to the point, and his intermediate
state was explosive in the extreme.

Mr. Flaxman dexterously continued the subject of the Elsmeres. Dropping
his bantering tone, he delivered himself of a very delicate cri