ur, hoping to find her sister-in-law alone, but in this she was
disappointed. Four visitors were in the drawing-room, three ladies and
a man of horsey appearance, who talked loudly as he leaned back with his
legs crossed, a walking-stick held over his knee, his hat on the ground
before him. The ladies were all apparently middle-aged; one of them had
a great quantity of astonishingly yellow hair, and the others made up
for deficiency in that respect with toilets in very striking taste.
The subject under discussion was a recent murder. The gentleman had
the happiness of being personally acquainted with the murderer, at all
events had frequently met him at certain resorts of the male population.
When Mrs. Rodman had briefly welcomed Adela, the discussion continued.
Its tone was vulgar, but perhaps not more so than the average tone
among middle-class people who are on familiar terms with each other. The
gentleman, still leading the conversation, kept his eyes fixed on Adela,
greatly to her discomfort.

In less than half an hour these four took their departure.

'So Dick came a cropper!' was Alice's first remark, when alone with her
sister-in-law.

Adela tried in vain to understand.

'At the election, you know. I don't see what he wanted to go making
himself so ridiculous. Is he much cut up?'

'I don't think it troubles him much,' Adela said; 'he really had
no expectation of being elected. It was just to draw attention to
Socialism.'

'Of course he'll put it in that way. But I'd no idea you were in London.
Where are you living?'

Alice had suffered, had suffered distinctly, in her manners, and
probably in her character. It was not only that she affected a fastness
of tone, and betrayed an ill-bred pleasure in receiving Adela in her
fine drawing-room; her face no longer expressed the idle good-nature
which used to make it pleasant to contemplate, it was thinner, less
wholesome in colour, rather acid about the lips. Her manner was hurried,
she seemed to be living in a whirl of frivolous excitements. Her taste
in dress had deteriorated; she wore a lot of jewellery of a common kind,
and her headgear was fantastic.

'We have a few friends to-morrow night,' she said when the conversation
had with difficulty dragged itself over ten minutes. 'Will you come to
dinner? I'm sure Willis will be very glad to see you.'

Adela heard the invitation with distress. Fortunately it was given in a
way which all but presupposed refusal