ndeed," said Lady Caroline, indignantly. "Where has
she disappeared to?"

"Need you ask?" said Mr. Cuthbert, smiling. "Our revered member secured
her at once, and has been talking to her in the conservatory for at
least half an hour, hatching radical plots, I dare say, and vowing
vengeance on all aristocrats."

"Really it is too shocking!" said Lady Caroline. "Mr. Farrant has no
sense of what is fitting; it is a trait which I have always noticed in
Radicals. He ought, at least to have some respect for his position."

"Birds of a feather flock together," suggested Mr. Cuthbert, with his
malicious smile.

"Well, I don't often defend Mr. Farrant," said Lady Caroline. "But
he comes of a good old family, and, though a Radical, he is at least
respectable."

Lady Caroline knew absolutely nothing about Erica, but uttered the last
sentence, with its vague, far-reaching, and most damaging hint, without
even a pricking of conscience.

"You will try to rescue the M.P.?" asked Mr. Cuthbert.

"For the sake of his position, yes," said Lady Caroline, entering the
conservatory.

"Oh! Mr. Farrant," she said, with her most gracious smile, "I came to
see whether you couldn't induce your wife to sing to us. Now, is it
true that she has given up her music? I assure you she and I have been
battling the point ever since you came up. Can't you persuade her to
give us just one song? I am really in despair for some music."

"I am afraid my wife is quite out of voice," said Donovan. "Are there no
other musical people?"

"Not one. It is really most astonishing. I was counting on Miss
Fane-Smith, but she has disappointed me, and there is not another
creature who will play or sing a note. Greyshot is a terrible unmusical
place."

"You do not belong to Greyshot, so perhaps you may be able to come to
the rescue," said Donovan to Erica. "Scotch people can, at any rate,
always play or sing their own national airs as no one else can."

Lady Caroline did not really in the least care whether there were music
or not, but she had expressed herself very strongly, and that tiresome
Mr. Farrant had taken her at her word, and was trying to beat
up recruits recruits that she did not want. He had now, whether
intentionally or not, put her in such a position that, unless she were
positively rude, she must ask Erica to play or sing.

"Have you brought any music, Miss Raeburn?" she asked, turning to
Erica with a chilling look, as though she had just b