at chronicled the
doings of her class. Stately, gracious, even queenly, were epithets
which were not spared her; it would have been refreshing to find some
Diogenes of a journalist who would have called her, in round set terms,
discontented, mutinous, scornful of the ideal she represented, a very
hot-bed of the faults the beauty of whose absence was declared in her
dignified demeanour. Now what May looked, that Fanny was; but poor
Fanny, being slight of build, small in feature, and gay in manner, got
no credit for her exalted virtues and could not be pressed into service
as the type of them. For certainly types must look typical. May's
comfort in these circumstances was that Marchmont's perfect breeding and
instinctive avoidance of display, of absurdity, even of betraying any
heat of emotion, saved her from the usual troubles which an unsatisfied
lover entails on his mistress. He looked for her no doubt, but with no
greater visible perturbation than if she had been his handkerchief.

An evening or two later Dick Benyon took her in to dinner. Entirely in
concession to him--for the subject had passed from her own thoughts--she
asked, "Well, how's your genius going on?" Before the meal was over she
regretted her question. It opened the doors to Dick's confused eloquence
and vague laudations of his _protege_; putting Dick on his defence, it
involved an infinite discussion of Quisante. She was told how Dick had
picked him up at Naples, gone to Pompeii with him, travelled home with
him, brought him and Jimmy together, and how the three had become
friends. "And if I'm a fool, my brother's not," said Dick. May knew that
Jimmy would shelter himself under a plea couched in identical language.
From this point Dick became less expansive, for at this point his own
benefactions and services had begun. She could not get much out of him,
but she found herself trying to worm out all she could. Dick had no
objection to saying that he had induced Quisante to go in for politics,
and had "squared" the influential persons who distributed (so far as a
free electorate might prove docile) seats in Parliament. Rumour and Aunt
Maria would have supplemented his statement by telling of substantial
aid given by the Benyon brothers. May, interested against her wish and
irritated at her interest, yet not content, like Dick's wife, to shrug
away Dick's aberrations, turned on him with a sudden, "But why, why? Why
do you like him?"

"Like him!" repeated