eas. But poor Lord Kingsbury had had nothing
to do with it. "They are not fit to go to such a house as Castle
Hautboy," she said. The Marquis, who was sitting alone in his own
morning room at Trafford, frowned angrily. But her ladyship, too, was
very angry. "They have disgraced themselves, and Geraldine should not
have received them."

There were two causes for displeasure in this. In the first place
the Marquis could not endure that such hard things should be said of
his elder children. Then, by the very nature of the accusation made,
there was a certain special honour paid to the Hauteville family
which he did not think at all to be their due. On many occasions his
wife had spoken as though her sister had married into a House of
peculiar nobility,--because, forsooth, Lord Persiflage was in the
Cabinet, and was supposed to have made a figure in politics. The
Marquis was not at all disposed to regard the Earl as in any way
bigger than was he himself. He could have paid all the Earl's
debts,--which the Earl certainly could not do himself,--and never
have felt it. The social gatherings at Castle Hautboy were much more
numerous than any at Trafford, but the guests at Castle Hautboy were
often people whom the Marquis would never have entertained. His wife
pined for the social influence which her sister was supposed to
possess, but he felt no sympathy with his wife in that respect.

"I deny it," said the father, rising from his chair, and scowling at
his wife as he stood leaning upon the table. "They have not disgraced
themselves."

"I say they have." Her ladyship made her assertion boldly, having
come into the room prepared for battle, and determined if possible to
be victor. "Has not Fanny disgraced herself in having engaged herself
to a low fellow, the scum of the earth, without saying anything even
to you about it?"

"No!" shouted the Marquis, who was resolved to contradict his wife in
anything she might say.

"Then I know nothing of what becomes a young woman," continued the
Marchioness. "And does not Hampstead associate with all manner of low
people?"

"No, never."

"Is not this George Roden a low person? Does he ever live with young
men or with ladies of his own rank?"

"And yet you're angry with him because he goes to Castle Hautboy!
Though, no doubt, he may meet people there quite unfit for society."

"That is not true," said the Marchioness. "My brother-in-law
entertains the best company in Europe."