face for a new reading of it to match with her
later impressions.
    »I am to do as I please with the knowledge I have gained?«
    »I am utterly in your hands, madam.«
    »I have not meant to be unkind.«
    »You have not been unkind; I could embrace you.«
    »I am rather too shattered, and kissing won't put me together. I laughed at
Lady Busshe! No wonder you went off like a rocket with a disappointing bouquet
when I told you you had been successful with poor Sir Willoughby and he could
not give you up. I noticed that. A woman like Lady Busshe, always prying for the
lamentable, would have required no further enlightenment. Has he a temper?.«
    Clara did not ask her to signalize the person thus abruptly obtruded.
    »He has faults,« she said.
    »There's an end to Sir Willoughby, then! Though I don't say he will give you
up even when he hears the worst, if he must hear it, as for his own sake he
should. And I won't say he ought to give you up. He'll be the pitiable angel if
he does. For you - but you don't deserve compliments; they would be immoral. You
have behaved badly, badly, badly. I have never had such a right-about-face in my
life. You will deserve the stigma: you will be notorious: you will be called
Number Two. Think of that! Not even original! We will break the conference, or I
shall twaddle to extinction. I think I heard the luncheon-bell.«
    »It rang.«
    »You don't look fit for company, but you had better come.«
    »Oh! yes: every day it's the same.«
    »Whether you're in my hands or I 'm in yours, we're a couple of
arch-conspirators against the peace of the family whose table we're sitting at,
and the more we rattle the viler we are, but we must do it to ease our minds.«
    Mrs. Mountstuart spread the skirts of her voluminous dress, remarking
further: »At a certain age our teachers are young people: we learn by looking
backward. It speaks highly for me that I have not called you mad. - Full of
faults, goodish-looking, not a bad talker, cheerful, poorish; - and she prefers
that to this!« the great lady exclaimed in her reverie