the saddle on the wrong horse."

Gwen looked for a moment completely bewildered. "What on, earth, can,
he, mean?" said she, addressing Space very slowly. Then, speaking as one
who has to show patience with a stiff problem:--"Dearest man--dearest
incoherency!--do try and explain. Which of the old ladies do you suppose
has white hair, and which grey?"

"Old Granny Marrable, I thought."

"Yes--but _which hair_? Which? Which? Which?"

"White, I thought, not grey." Whereupon Gwen, seeing how much hung upon
the impression her lover had been under hitherto about these two tints
of hair, kept down a growing excitement to ask him quietly for an exact,
undisjointed statement, and got this for answer:--"I have always thought
of Granny Marrable's as snow-white, and the old Australian's as grey.
Was that wrong?"

"Quite wrong! It's the other way round. The Granny's is grey and old
Mrs. Picture's is silvery white."

Adrian gave a long whistle, for astonishment, and was silent. So was
Gwen. For this was the third incident of the sort, and what might not
happen? Presently he broke the silence, to say:--"At any rate, that
leaves Scatcherd a chance. I thought if this was a make-up of my own, it
smashed _her_."

"Foolish man! There is more in it than that. You _saw_ old Mrs. Picture.
It was no make-up.... Well?" She paused for his reply.

It came after a studied silence, a dumbness of set purpose. "Oh
why--why--is it always Mrs. Picture, or Scatcherd, or Septimius Severus?
Why can it never be Gwen--Gwen--Gwen?"

The attenuated _chaperonage_ of the lady of the house may have been
moved by a certain demonstrativeness of her son's at this point, to say
from afar:--"I _hope_ we are going to have some 'Ifigenia in Aulide.'
Because I _should_ have enjoyed _that_." Which carried an implication
that the musical world had been palming off an inferior article on a
public deeply impressible by the higher aspects of Opera.

CHAPTER XXV

HOW THE EARL ASKED AFTER THE OLD TWINS. MERENESS. RECUPERATIVE
POWER. HOW THE HOUSEHOLD HAD ITS ANNUAL DANCE. HOW THE COUNTESS HAD
A CRACKED LIP. HOW WAS DR. TUXFORD SOMERS? SIR SPENCER DERRICK.
GENERAL RAWNSLEY. HE AND GWEN'S INTENDED GREAT GRANDMOTHER-IN-LAW.
GWEN HAD NEVER HAD TWINS BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. THE
GENERAL'S BROTHER PHILIP. SUPERANNUATED COCKS AND HENS. HOW GWEN
HAD DREAMED SHE WAS TO MARRY A KETTLE-HOLDER. HOW MRS. LAMPREY HAD
A LETTER