f tea later on.'

The _Haute Gomme_ was a new club in Piccadilly, which Maulevrier and
some of his friends affected.

Lesbia went towards the drawing-room door with her brother, and just as
he reached the door she laid her hand caressingly upon his shoulder. He
turned and stared at her, somewhat surprised, for he and she had never
been given to demonstrations of affection.

'Maulevrier, I want you to do me a favour,' she said, in a low voice,
blushing a little, for the thing she was going to ask was a new thing
for her to ask, and she had a deep sense of shame in making her demand.
'I--I lost money at Nap last night. Only seventeen pounds. Mr. Smithson
and I were partners, and he paid my losses. I want to pay him
immediately, and----'

'And you are too hard up to do it. I'll write you a cheque this
instant,' said Maulevrier goodnaturedly; but while he was writing the
cheque he took occasion to remonstrate with Lesbia on the foolishness of
card playing.

'I am obliged to do as Lady Kirkbank does,' she answered feebly. 'If I
were to refuse to play it would be a kind of reproach to her.'

'I don't think that would kill Lady Kirkbank,' replied Maulevrier, with
a touch of scorn. 'She has had to endure a good many implied reproaches
in her day, and they don't seem to have hurt her very much. I wish to
heaven my grandmother had chosen any one else in London for your
chaperon.'

'I'm afraid Lady Kirkbank's is rather a rowdy set,' answered Lesbia,
coolly; 'and I sometimes feel as if I had thrown myself away. We go
almost everywhere--at least, there are only just a few houses to which
we are not asked. But those few make all the difference. It is so
humiliating to feel that one is not in quite the best society. However,
Lady Kirkbank is a dear, good old thing, and I am not going to grumble
about her.'

'I've made the cheque for five-and-twenty. You can cash it at your
milliner's,' said Maulevrier. 'I should not like Smithson to know that
you had been obliged to ask me for the money.'

'_Apropos_ to Mr. Smithson, do you know if he is in quite the best
society?' asked Lesbia.

'I don't know what you mean by quite the best. A man of Smithson's
wealth can generally poke his nose in anywhere, if he knows how to
behave himself. But of course there are people with whom money and fine
houses have no weight. The Conservatives are all civil to Smithson
because he comes down handsomely at General Elections, and is useful to
th