said Mr.
Carruthers.

Lord Robert announced he was going there now, and would tell her.

I knew that. The blue tea-gown with the pink roses, and the lace cap, and
the bad cold were not for nothing. (I wish I had not written this; it is
spiteful of me, and I am not spiteful, as a rule. It must be the east
wind.)

Thursday night, _November 24th._

"Now that you have embarked upon this--" Lady Ver said, when I ventured
into her sitting-room, hearing no voices, about six o'clock. (Mr.
Carruthers had left me at the door at the end of our walk, and I had been
with the angels at tea ever since.) "Now that you have embarked upon this
opera, I say, you will have to dine at Willis's with us. I won't be in
when Charlie arrives from Paris. A blowy day like to-day his temper is
sure to be impossible."

"Very well," I said.

Of what use, after all, for an adventuress like me to have sensitive
feelings.

"And I am leaving this house at a quarter to seven, I wish you to know,
Evangeline, pet," she called after me, as I flew off to dress. As a rule
Lady Ver takes a good hour to make herself into the attractive darling she
is in the evening. She has not to do much, because she is lovely by
nature, but she potters and squabbles with Welby, to divert herself, I
suppose.

However, to-night, with the terror upon her of a husband fresh from a
rough Channel passage going to arrive at seven o'clock, she was actually
dressed and down in the hall when I got there punctually at 6.45, and in
the twinkle of an eye we were rolling in the electric to Willis's. I have
only been there once before, and that to lunch in Mrs. Carruthers's days
with some of the ambassadors; and it does feel gay going to a restaurant
at night. I felt more excited than ever in my life, and such a situation,
too!

Lord Robert--_fruit defendu!_--and Mr. Carruthers--_empresse_--and to be
kept in bounds!

More than enough to fill the hands of a maiden of sixteen fresh from a
convent, as old Count Someroff used to say when he wanted to express a
really difficult piece of work.

They were waiting for us just inside the door, and again I noticed that
they were both lovely creatures, and both exceptionally distinguished
looking.

Lady Ver nodded to a lot of people before we took our seats in a nice
little corner. She must have an agreeable time with so many friends. She
said something which sounds so true in one of our