f her opinion of her. The object of this
unpent storm of accumulated animosity waited patiently for a lull, and
then remarked quietly to the angry little woman--

"And now, my dear Mrs. Gwepton, let me tell you something that I've been
wanting to say for the last two or three minutes, only you wouldn't given
me a chance; you've got a hairpin dropping out on the left side. You
thin-haired women always find it difficult to keep your hairpins in."

"What can one do with a woman like that?" Mrs. Val demanded afterwards of
a sympathising audience.

Of course, Reggie received numerous hints as to the unpopularity of this
jarring personality. His sister-in-law openly tackled him on the subject
of her many enormities. Reggie listened with the attenuated regret that
one bestows on an earthquake disaster in Bolivia or a crop failure in
Eastern Turkestan, events which seem so distant that one can almost
persuade oneself they haven't happened.

"That woman has got some hold over him," opined his sister-in-law,
darkly; "either she is helping him to finance the show, and presumes on
the fact, or else, which Heaven forbid, he's got some queer infatuation
for her. Men do take the most extraordinary fancies."

Matters never came exactly to a crisis. Mrs. Pentherby, as a source of
personal offence, spread herself over so wide an area that no one woman
of the party felt impelled to rise up and declare that she absolutely
refused to stay another week in the same house with her. What is
everybody's tragedy is nobody's tragedy. There was ever a certain
consolation in comparing notes as to specific acts of offence. Reggie's
sister-in-law had the added interest of trying to discover the secret
bond which blunted his condemnation of Mrs. Pentherby's long catalogue of
misdeeds. There was little to go on from his manner towards her in
public, but he remained obstinately unimpressed by anything that was said
against her in private.

With the one exception of Mrs. Pentherby's unpopularity, the house-party
scheme was a success on its first trial, and there was no difficulty
about reconstructing it on the same lines for another winter session. It
so happened that most of the women of the party, and two or three of the
men, would not be available on this occasion, but Reggie had laid his
plans well ahead and booked plenty of "fresh blood" for the departure. It
would be, if any thing, rather a larger party than before.

"I'm so sorry