d assumed that Mr. Newell had been
among the number. That he had been dropped overboard at an early stage
in the lady's career seemed probable from the fact that neither his
wife nor his daughter ever mentioned him. Mrs. Newell was incapable of
reticence, and if her husband had still been an active element in her
life he would certainly have figured in her conversation. Garnett, if
he thought of the matter at all, had concluded that divorce must long
since have eliminated Mr. Newell; but he now saw how he had underrated
his friend's faculty for using up the waste material of life. She had
always struck him as the most extravagant of women, yet it turned out
that by a miracle of thrift she had for years kept a superfluous
husband on the chance that he might some day be useful to her. The day
had come, and Mr. Newell was to be called from his obscurity. Garnett
wondered what had become of him in the interval, and in what shape he
would respond to the evocation. The fact that his wife feared he might
not respond to it at all, seemed to show that his exile was voluntary,
or had at least come to appear preferable to other alternatives; but if
that were the case it was curious that he should not have taken legal
means to free himself. He could hardly have had his wife's motives for
wishing to maintain the vague tie between them; but conjecture lost
itself in trying to picture what his point of view was likely to be,
and Garnett, on his way to the Hubbards' dinner that evening, could not
help regretting that circumstances denied him the opportunity of
meeting so enigmatic a person. The young man's knowledge of Mrs.
Newell's methods made him feel that her husband might be an interesting
study. This, however, did not affect his resolve to keep clear of the
business. He entered the Hubbards' dining-room with the firm intention
of refusing to execute Mrs. Newell's commission, and if he changed his
mind in the course of the evening it was not owing to that lady's
persuasions.

Garnett's curiosity as to the Hubbards' share in Hermione's marriage
was appeased before he had been seated five minutes at their table.

Mrs. Woolsey Hubbard was an expansive blonde, whose ample but
disciplined outline seemed the result of a well-matched struggle
between her cook and her corset-maker. She talked a great deal of what
was appropriate in dress and conduct, and seemed to regard Mrs. Newell
as a final arbiter on both points. To do or to wear any