triumph that is
never denied success. To Gilly prosperous were forgiven the sins of
Gilly in social and moral rags. If scandal like an evil gas had been
let loose to crystallise upon Phillipa's good name, the black stains
could not adhere long to so charming a person, who made the Purling
mansion in Berkeley Square one of the best-frequented and most
fashionable in town.

There were many reasons why the Jillinghams should find their account
in perpetual junketings. Social excitement was as the breath in
Gilly's nostrils; notorious for profuse expenditure even when he was
penniless, he was now absolutely reckless with money that was
plentiful and moreover not his own. Nor was the constant whirl of
gaieties without its charm for Phillipa; it deadened conscience, and
consoled in some measure for the neglect and indifference she soon
encountered at her husband's hands. But the most potent reason was
that it fooled Mrs. Purling to the top of her bent. Self-satisfaction
beamed upon her ample face as she found herself at length in constant
intercourse and on a social equality--as she thought--with the
potentates and powers and great ones of the earth. Gilly Jillingham in
the days of his apogee had been the spoiled favourite of more than one
titled dame; his success must have been great, to measure it by the
envy and hatred he evoked among his fellowmen--even when in the cold
shade there were duchesses who fought for him still; and now, when
once more in full blossom, all his fair friends were ready to pet him
as of old. The form in which their kindness pleased him best--because
it was most to his advantage--was in making much of Mrs. Purling.
Great people have the knack of putting those whom they patronise on
the very best terms with themselves; and Mrs. Purling was so convinced
of her success as a leader of fashion that she would have asked for a
peerage in her own right, taking for arms three pills proper upon a
silver field, if she could have been certain that these honours would
not descend to her recreant son.

Whether or not, as time passed, she was absolutely happy, she did not
pause to inquire. The devotion of her newly-adopted children was so
unstinting, and they kept her so continually busy, that she had not
time for self-reproach. It was a disappointment to her that the
Jillinghams had no prospect of a family, and her chagrin would have
been increased had she known that already a boy and girl had been born
to the