"and as for her, I will break with
her from this day forward."

The little pink notes with the dashing, twirly handwriting persisted for
a week or two and then ceased.

* * * * *

Hugh was a man of many social engagements. His first impulse, when later
in the day he remembered them, was to throw them all up and leave
London. But Lord Newhaven would hear of his departure, and would smile.
He decided to remain and to go on as if nothing had happened. When the
evening came he dressed with his usual care, verified the hour of his
engagement, and went out to dine with the Loftuses.

CHAPTER V

What the _Bandar-log_ think now the jungle will think later.
--Maxim of the _Bandar-log_, RUDYARD KIPLING.

It was Sybell Loftus's first season in London since her second marriage
with Mr. Doll Loftus. After a very brief sojourn in that city of
frivolity she had the acumen to discover that London society was
hopelessly worldly and mercenary; that people only met to eat and to
abuse each other; that the law of cutlet for cutlet was universal; that
young men, especially those in the Guards, were garrisoned by a full
complement of devils; that London girls lived only for dress and the
excitement of husband-hunting. In short, to use her own expression, she
"turned London society inside out."

London bore the process with equanimity, and presently Sybell determined
to raise the art of dinner-giving from the low estate to which she
avowed it had fallen to a higher level. She was young, she was pretty,
she was well-born, she was rich. All the social doors were open to her.
But one discovery is often only the prelude to another. She soon made
the further one that in order to raise the tone of social gatherings it
is absolutely necessary to infuse into them a leaven of "clever people."
Further light on this interesting subject showed her that most of the
really "clever people" did not belong to her set. The discovery which
all who love adulation quickly make--namely, that the truly appreciative
and sympathetic and gifted are for the greater part to be found in a
class below their own--was duly made and registered by Sybell. She
avowed that class differences were nothing to her with the enthusiasm of
all those who since the world began have preferred to be first in the
society which they gather round them.

Fortunately for Sybell she was not troubled by doubts respecting t