ever you may do, _I_ shall apologize to
Lady Henry."

"There's nothing to apologize for," cried the drooping Duchess, plucking
up a little spirit. "Nobody meant any harm. Why shouldn't the old
friends go in to ask after her? Hutton--that old butler that has been
with Aunt Flora for twenty years--_asked_ us to come in."

"Then he did what he had no business to do, and he deserves to be
dismissed at a day's notice. Why, Lady Henry tells me that it was a
regular party--that the room was all arranged for it by that most
audacious young woman--that the servants were ordered about--that it
lasted till nearly midnight, and that the noise you all made positively
woke Lady Henry out of her sleep. Really, Evelyn, that you should have
been mixed up in such an affair is more unpalatable to me than I can
find words to describe." And he paced, fuming, up and down before her.

"Anybody else than Aunt Flora would have laughed," said the Duchess,
defiantly. "And I declare, Freddie, I won't be scolded in such a tone.
Besides, if you only knew--"

She threw back her head and looked at him, her cheeks flushed, her lips
quivering with a secret that, once out, would perhaps silence him at
once--would, at any rate, as children do when they give a shake to their
spillikins, open up a number of new chances in the game.

"If I only knew what?"

The Duchess pulled at the hair of the little spitz on her lap without
replying.

"What is there to know that I don't know?" insisted the Duke. "Something
that makes the matter still worse, I suppose?"

"Well, that depends," said the Duchess, reflectively. A gleam of
mischief had slipped into her face, though for a moment the tears had
not been far off.

The Duke looked at his watch.

"Don't keep me here guessing riddles longer than you can help," he said,
impatiently. "I have an appointment in the City at twelve, and I want to
discuss with you the letter that must be written to Lady Henry."

"That's your affair," said the Duchess. "I haven't made up my mind yet
whether I mean to write at all. And as for the riddle, Freddie, you've
seen Miss Le Breton?"

"Once. I thought her a very pretentious person," said the Duke, stiffly.

"I know--you didn't get on. But, Freddie, didn't she remind you of
somebody?"

The Duchess was growing excited. Suddenly she jumped up; the little
spitz rolled off her lap; she ran to her husband and took him by the
fronts of his coat.

"Freddie, you'll be very mu