ing her in
twenty per cent.; nay, more, he would also find the thousand, which
would have been the initial difficulty on poor Georgie's part. But this
little matter was in Georgie's mind a detail, compared with the
advantages to accrue to her indirectly from Lesbia's union with one of
the richest men in London.

Lady Kirkbank had brought about many good matches, and had been too
often rewarded with base ingratitude upon the part of her _protegees_,
after marriage; but there was a touch of Arcady in the good soul's
nature, and she was always trustful. She told herself that Lesbia would
not be ungrateful, would not basely kick down the ladder by which she
had mounted to heights empyrean, would not cruelly shelve the friend who
had pioneered her to high fortune. She counted upon making the house in
Park Lane as her own house, upon being the prime mover of all Lesbia's
hospitalities, the supervisor of her visiting list, the shadow behind
the throne.

There were balls and parties nightly, dinners, luncheons,
garden-parties; and yet there was a sense of waning in the glory of the
world--everybody felt that the fag-end of the season was approaching.
All the really great entertainments were over--the Cabinet dinners, the
Reception at the Foreign Office, the last of the State balls and
concerts. Some of the best people had already left town; and senators
were beginning to complain that they saw no prospect of early
deliverance. There was Goodwood still to look forward to; and after
Goodwood the Deluge--or rather Cowes Regatta, about which Lady
Kirkbank's set were already talking.

Lady Lesbia was to be at Cowes for the Regatta week. That was a settled
thing. Mr. Smithson's schooner-yacht, the Cayman, was to be her hotel.
It was to be Lady Kirkbank and Lady Lesbia's yacht for the nonce; and
Mr. Smithson was to live on shore at his villa, and at that aristocratic
club to which, by Maulevrier's influence, and on the score of his
approaching marriage with an earl's daughter, he had been just selected.
He would be only Lady Kirkbank's visitor on board the Cayman. The severe
etiquette of the situation would therefore not be infringed; and yet Mr.
Smithson would have the happiness of seeing his betrothed sole and
sovereign mistress of his yacht, and of spending the long summer days at
her feet. Even to Lady Lesbia this idea of the yacht was not without its
charm. She had never been on board such a yacht as the Cayman; she was a
goo