a thing." And then again she grumbled. "It's all very
well being in the Cabinet--!"

"Is Lord Fawn in the Cabinet?" asked Miss Macnulty, who in such
matters was not altogether ignorant.

"Of course he is," said Lizzie, with an angry gesture. It may
seem unjust to accuse her of being stupidly unacquainted with
circumstances, and a liar at the same time; but she was both. She
said that Lord Fawn was in the Cabinet because she had heard some
one speak of him as not being a Cabinet Minister, and in so speaking
appear to slight his political position. Lizzie did not know how much
her companion knew, and Miss Macnulty did not comprehend the depth of
the ignorance of her patroness. Thus the lies which Lizzie told were
amazing to Miss Macnulty. To say that Lord Fawn was in the Cabinet,
when all the world knew that he was an Under-Secretary! What good
could a woman get from an assertion so plainly, so manifestly false?
But Lizzie knew nothing of Under-Secretaries. Lord Fawn was a lord,
and even commoners were in the Cabinet. "Of course he is," said
Lizzie; "but I sha'n't have my drawing-room made a Cabinet. They
sha'n't come here." And then again on the Tuesday evening she
displayed her independence. "As for those women down at Richmond, I
don't mean to be overrun by them, I can tell you. I said I would go
there, and of course I shall keep my word."

"I think you had better go," said Miss Macnulty.

"Of course, I shall go. I don't want anybody to tell me where I'm to
go, my dear, and where I'm not. But it'll be about the first and the
last visit. And as for bringing those dowdy girls out in London, it's
the last thing I shall think of doing. Indeed, I doubt whether they
can afford to dress themselves." As she went up to bed on the Tuesday
evening, Miss Macnulty doubted whether the match would go on. She
never believed her friend's statements; but if spoken words might
be supposed to mean anything, Lady Eustace's words on that Tuesday
betokened a strong dislike to everything appertaining to the Fawn
family. She had even ridiculed Lord Fawn himself, declaring that he
understood nothing about anything beyond his office.

And, in truth, Lizzie almost had made up her mind to break it off.
All that she would gain did not seem to weigh down with sufficient
preponderance all that she would lose. Such were her feelings on the
Tuesday night. But on the Wednesday morning she received a note which
threw her back violently upon the Fa