l be paid to it, so it's no use," said her ladyship.

"But what _is_ it?" said the Earl. "No harm in knowing _what_ it is,
that I can see!"

"My dear," said the Countess, "you are always unreasonable. But Gwen may
see some sense in what I say. It's no use your looking amused, because
that doesn't do any good." After which little preliminary skirmish she
came to the point, speaking to Gwen in a half-aside, as to a
fellow-citizen in contradistinction to an outcast, her father. "Why
should not your old woman be put up at Mrs. Marrable's? They do this
sort of thing there. However, perhaps Mrs. Marrable is full up."

"I didn't see anybody there but the two Goodies. I didn't go in, though.
But why is Mrs. Picture not to stop where she is?"

"Just as you please, my dear." Her ladyship abdicated with the
promptitude of a malicious monarch, who seeks to throw the Constitution
into disorder. "How long do you want to stop here yourself?"

"I haven't made up my mind. But _why_ is Mrs. Picture not to stop where
she is?" This was put incisively.

Her ladyship deprecated truculence. "My dear Gwen!--really! _Are_ you
Farmer Jones's Bull, or who?" Then, during a lull in the servants, for
the moment out of hearing, she added in an undertone:--"You can ask
Norbury, and see what _he_ thinks. Only wait till Thomas is out of the
room." To which Gwen replied substantially that she was still in
possession of her senses.

Now Norbury stood in a very peculiar relation to this noble Family.
Perhaps it is best described as that of an Unacknowledged Deity,
tolerating Atheism from a respect for the Aristocracy. He was not
allowed altars or incense, which might have made him vain; but it is
difficult to say what questions he was not consulted on, by the Family.
Its members had a general feeling that opinions so respectful as his
_must_ be right, even when they did not bear analysis.

Gwen let the door close on Thomas before she approached the Shrine of
the Oracle. It must be admitted that she did so somewhat as Farmer
Jones's Bull might have done. "_You've_ heard all about old Mrs.
Picture, Norbury?" said she.

Why should it have been that Mr. Norbury's "Oh _dear_, yes, my lady!"
immediately caused inferences in his hearers' minds--one of which, in
the Countess's, caused her to say to Gwen, under her voice:--"I told you
so!"?

But Gwen was consulting the Oracle; what did it matter to her what
forecasts of its decisions the Public had made