my sight till you come to your senses. Get
out of my sight, I say!"

How long this tirade might have raged I cannot tell, had not David
announced "Lord Basingstoke." Shallow waters are easily lashed into a
storm, and as easily does the storm spend itself.

Lady Betty quickly recovered herself, and as Griselda left the room she
heard her aunt's usual dulcet tones and the inevitable giggle as the
young lord, who was sorely at a loss how to "kill time," sank down in
the chair Sir Maxwell had so lately left, and the usual badinage went on
and received an additional piquancy by the arrival of two or three more
idle people who had been to the Pump Room for their afternoon glass of
water, and missing Lady Betty, had come to inquire for her health, and
to talk the usual amount of scandal, or harmless gossip, as the case
might be.

The various love affairs on the tapis were discussed in their several
aspects, and Mrs. Greenwood's plain daughters were made the target for
the shafts of foolish satire.

"Could you fancy, my lady, that the vulgar mother asked young Mr.
Beresford what his intentions were because he had danced twice with that
fright, her daughter Bell, out of sheer pity? Lor', what fun young
Beresford is making of her!"

"Ridiculous! vastly amusing!" exclaimed Lady Betty.

"But there is another marriage spoken of. I hear you are to give your
beautiful ward"--Lady Betty's friends always took care to call Griselda
a ward, not a niece--"to Sir Maxwell Danby. He has a fine place, upon my
word," said an old beau, who posed as a young one. "He has a fine place,
and a pretty fortune. I congratulate you, madam, and the young lady. For
my part, I always have reckoned her the belle of Bath this season."

Lady Betty smiled, and accepted the congratulation and the admiration at
the same time.

"Sir Maxwell had just left her," she said.

"Where is the young lady?" the old gentleman asked. "Upon my word, Danby
is a lucky fellow. There are many who will envy him. I confess _I_ am
one."

"Yes. I say, where is Miss Mainwaring?" Lord Basingstoke asked.

And Lady Betty, flirting her fan vigorously, said:

"She has a headache, and will not be at the Assembly to-night, I fear."

CHAPTER XI.

A LETTER.

Griselda was glad to escape to her own room that she might have time to
think over her position and decide what was best to do, and what was the
next step to take.

She laid aside her dress and hoop, and put