? ... it seems, you say ...?«
    Lady Culmer said to the Patterne ladies:
    »You must have had a distressing time. These affairs always mount up to a
climax, unless people are very well bred. We saw it coming. Naturally we did not
expect such a transformation of brides: who could? If I had laid myself down on
my back to think, I should have had it. I am unerring when I set to speculating
on my back. One is cooler: ideas come; they have not to be forced. That is why I
am brighter on a dull winter afternoon, on the sofa, beside my tea-service, than
at any other season.
    However, your trouble is over. When did the Middletons leave?«
    »The Middletons leave?« said the ladies.
    »Dr. Middleton and his daughter.«
    »They have not left us.«
    »The Middletons are here?«
    »They are here, yes. Why should they have left Patterne?«
    »Why?«
    »Yes. They are likely to stay some days longer.«
    »Goodness!«
    »There is no ground for any report to the contrary. Lady Culmer.«
    »No ground!«
    Lady Culmer called out to Lady Busshe.
    A cry came back from that startled dame.
    »She has refused him!«
    »Who?«
    »She has!«
    »She? - Sir Willoughby?«
    »Refused! - declines the honour.«
    »Oh! never! No, that carries the incredible beyond romance! But is he
perfectly at ...?«
    »Quite, it seems. And she was asked in due form and refused.«
    »No, and no again!«
    »My dear, I have it from Mr. Dale.«
    »Mr. Dale, what can be the signification of her conduct!«
    »Indeed, Lady Culmer,« said Mr. Dale, not unpleasantly agitated by the
interest he excited, in spite of his astonishment at a public discussion of the
matter in this house, »I am in the dark. Her father should know, but I do not.
Her door is locked to me; I have not seen her. I am absolutely in the dark. I am
a recluse. I have forgotten the ways of the world. I should have supposed her
father would first have been addressed.«
    »Tut-tut. Modern gentlemen are not so formal; they are creatures of impulse
and take a pride in it. He spoke. We settle
