t things are first spoken of, and the noxious breath of slander
started upon its career? Or, are there evil-minded persons, both men and
women, prowling about, like unclean animals, at the skirts of that
society into whose inner recesses they would fain gain admittance,
picking up greedily, here and there, in their eaves-dropping career,
some scrap or morsel of truth out of which they weave a well-varnished
tale wherewith to delight the ears of the vulgar and the coarse-minded?
There are such men and such women; God forgive them for their wickedness!

Do any of these scandal-mongers ever call to mind, I wonder, an ancient
and, seemingly, a well-nigh forgotten injunction?

"Thou shalt not bear false witness," said the same Voice who has also
said, "Thou shalt do no murder."

And which is the worst--to kill a man's body, or to slay a man's honour,
or a woman's reputation?

In truth, there seems to me to be but little difference between the two;
and the man or the woman who will do the one might very possibly be
guilty of the other--but for the hanging!

We should all do a great many more wicked things than we do if there were
no consequences.

It is a very trite observation, which is, nevertheless, never spoken with
more justice or more truth than at or about Hyde Park Corner between May
and July, that the world we live in is a very wicked one.

Well, the season, as I have said, was well-nigh over, and all the scandal
had run dry, and the gossip, for the most part, been proved to be
incorrect, and there was nobody in all London who excited so much
irritation among the talkers as the new beauty, Vera Nevill.

For Vera was Miss Nevill still, and there was every prospect of her
remaining so. What on earth possessed the girl that she would not marry?
Had not men dangled at her elbow all the season? Could she not have had
such and such elder sons, or such and such wealthy commoner? What was she
waiting for? A girl without a penny, who came nobody knew from where,
ushered in under Mrs. Hazeldine's wings, with not a decent connection
in the world to her name! What did she want--this girl who had only her
beauty to depend upon? and everybody knows how fleeting _that_ is!

And then, presently, the women who were envious of her began to whisper
amongst themselves. There was something against her; she was not what she
seemed to be. The men flirted, of course--men will always flirt! but
they were careful not to commit themse