ng its young.
And now that the strain was over and she found herself once more in her
brougham, driving homeward with the familiar clip-clop of the fat old
carriage-horse's hoofs in her ears, she shrank back against the cushions
marvelling at the temerity which had swept her into the Wielitzska's
presence and endowed her with words that cut like a two-edged sword.

Like a two-edged sword in very truth! Lady Raynham's final thrust,
stabbing at her with its stern denunciation, brought back vividly to
Magda Michael Quarrington's bitter speech--"I've no place for your kind
of woman."

Side by side with the recollection came a sudden dart of fear. How would
all this stir about Kit Raynham--the impending gossip and censure
which seemed likely to be accorded her--affect him? Would he judge her
again--as he had judged her before?

She was conscious of a fresh impulse of anger against Lady Raynham. She
wanted to forget the past--blot it all out of her memory--and out of the
memory of the man whose contempt had hurt her more than anything in her
whole life before. And now it seemed as though everything were combining
to emphasise those very things which had earned his scorn.

But, apart from a certain apprehension as to how the whole affair might
appear in Michael's eyes, she was characteristically unimpressed by her
interview with Lady Raynham.

"I don't see," she told Gillian indignantly, "that I'm to blame because
the boy lost his head. His mother was--stupid."

Gillian regarded her consideringly. To her, the whole pitiful tragedy
was so clear. She could envisage the point of view of Kit's mother only
too well, and sympathise with it. Yet, understanding Magda better than
most people did, she realised that the dancer was hardly as culpable as
Lady Raynham thought her.

Homage and admiration were as natural to Magda as the air she breathed,
and it made very little impression on her whether a man more or less
lost his heart to her or not. Moreover, as Gillian recognised it was
almost inevitable that this should be the case. The influences by
which Magda had been surrounded during the first ten plastic years of
childhood had all tended to imbue her with the idea that men were only
to be regarded as playthings, and that from the simple standpoint of
self-defence it was wiser not to take them seriously. If you did,
they invariably showed a disposition to become tyrants. Gillian made
allowance for this; nevertheless she had n