rriage. It is really
remarkable what matches these pert shop girls make nowadays. Men seem to
prefer them to our daughters, though it is hard to understand."

"Hard? Impossible!" The Vicar's wife, thinking of her own plain and
middle-aged daughters, spoke snappily. "As you say, no doubt Mrs. Rose
was some little shop-assistant----"

"Ah, no! I remember now!" Lady Martin spoke mysteriously, and Mrs.
Madgwick looked up sharply. "Mrs. Rose was not in a shop. It was not
there that Mr. Rose met her. As a matter of fact she was his typist."

"His typist! Ah!" Toni, listening breathlessly, could not fathom the
significance of the lady's tone.

"Of course he would never have married her if he had not been so sore
about Miss Rees." Lady Martin spoke fluently. "I had the whole story of
that affair from a friend of my daughter's who was intimately acquainted
with Miss Rees."

"But--who is--or was--Miss Rees?" The speaker little knew how Toni
blessed her for putting the question.

"The girl he should have married--the Earl of Paulton's niece." Lady
Martin paused a moment to brush away an inquisitive gnat. "It was quite
a romantic affair, at first. Mr. Rose was devoted, positively devoted to
her, and she is really a charming girl, handsome, accomplished, in every
way a contrast to the poor little creature he has married."

"But why, if he were so devoted----"

"Didn't he marry her? Well, it seems he had a motor smash, knocked
himself up and had to go away for a time; and whether, as I have been
told, she was glad of the excuse to break her promise, or whether there
was some other reason, I don't know, but anyhow she threw him over and
married Lord Saxonby without telling her first _fiance_ a word about
it."

"And he took it to heart?" Mrs. Madgwick felt exhilarated by this
authentic peep into the lives of the great ones of the earth. "Of course
it must be galling to be thrown over for another man--though when it is
a Lord----"

"Well, a Lord's no worse than another man," said Lady Martin rather
ambiguously. "But they say there was a terrible scene--Mr. Rose
reproaching the girl and threatening to kill Lord Saxonby, and making
all sorts of wild threats. My daughter's friend had a maid who had been
with Lady Saxonby, and she told her all this."

"Ah, then of course it's true." Mrs. Madgwick, having a mind which
delighted in gossip, did not quarrel with the source of information.
"But I don't yet see why Mr. Rose married