s as if to stop the
other's mouth. "You want to make me think she is a wicked woman," she
said. "And that Tom--Tom----"

Lucy had never permitted suspicion to enter her mind. She did not know
now what it was that penetrated her innocent soul like an arrow. It was
not jealousy. It was the wounding suggestion of a possibility which she
would not and could not entertain.

"Lucy, Tom has no excuse at all," said the Dowager solemnly. "You'll
believe nothing against him, of course, and I can't possibly wish to
turn you against him; but I don't suppose he meant all that is likely to
come out of it. He thought it would be a joke--and in the country what
could it matter? And then things have never gone so far as that people
could refuse to receive her, you know. Oh no! the Contessa has her wits
too much about her for that. But you saw for yourself that the Duchess
was petrified; and I--not that I am an authority, like her Grace. One
thing, Lucy, is quite clear, and that I must say; you must not take upon
yourself to be answerable--you so young as you are and not accustomed to
society--for _that_ woman, before the world. You must just take your
courage in both hands, and tell Tom that though you give in to him in
the country, in town you will not have her. She means to take advantage
of you, and bring forward her girl, and make a _grand coup_. That is
what she means--I know that sort of person. It is just the greatest luck
in the world for them to get hold of some one that is so unexceptionable
and so unsuspicious as you."

Lady Randolph insisted upon saying all this, notwithstanding the
interruptions of Lucy. "Now I wash my hands of it," she said. "If you
won't be advised, I can do no more." It was the day after the great
dinner when the Duchess had met Madame di Forno-Populo with so much
surprise. The elder lady had been in much excitement all the evening.
She had conversed with her Grace apart on several occasions, and from
the way in which they laid their heads together, and their gestures, it
was clear enough that their feeling was the same upon the point they
discussed. All the best people in the county had been collected
together, and there could be no doubt that the Contessa had achieved a
great success. She sang as no woman had ever been heard to sing for a
hundred miles round, and her beauty and her grace and her diamonds had
been enough to turn the heads of both men and women. It was remarked
that the Duchess, thoug