Then she remembered that her very last waltz
had been with Jack De Baron. Could it be that he was jealous? She was
well aware that she took great delight in waltzing with Captain De
Baron because he waltzed so well. But now that pleasure was over, and
for ever! Was it that her husband disliked waltzing, or that he
disliked Jack De Baron?

A few days after this Lady George was surprised by a visit from the
Baroness Banmann, the lady whom she had been taken to hear at the
Disabilities. Since that memorable evening she had seen Aunt Ju more
than once, and had asked how the cause of the female architects was
progressing; but she had never again met the Baroness. Aunt Ju had
apparently been disturbed by these questions. She had made no further
effort to make Lady George a proselyte by renewed attendances at the
Rights of Women Institute, and had seemed almost anxious to avoid the
subject. As Lady George's acquaintance with the Baroness had been owing
altogether to Aunt Ju she was now surprised that the German lady should
call upon her.

The German lady began a story with great impetuosity,--with so much
impetuosity that poor Mary could not understand half that was said to
her. But she did learn that the Baroness had in her own estimation been
very ill-treated, and that the ill-treatment had come mainly from the
hands of Aunt Ju and Lady Selina Protest. And it appeared at length
that the Baroness claimed to have been brought over from Bavaria with a
promise that she should have the exclusive privilege of using the hall
of the Disabilities on certain evenings, but that this privilege was
now denied to her. The Disabilities seemed to prefer her younger rival,
Miss Doctor Olivia Q. Fleabody, whom Mary now learned to be a person of
no good repute whatever, and by no means fit to address the masses of
Marylebone. But what did the Baroness want of her? What with the female
lecturer's lack of English pronunciation, what with her impetuosity,
and with Mary's own innocence on the matter, it was some time before
the younger lady did understand what the elder lady required. At last
eight tickets were brought out of her pocket, on looking at which Mary
began to understand that the Baroness had established a rival
Disabilities, very near the other, in Lisson Grove; and then at last,
but very gradually, she further understood that these were front-row
tickets, and were supposed to be worth 2_s._ 6_d._ each. But it was not
till after tha