1 6 The Real Charlotte, 



to get up a round of golf? How do you do, Miss Mullen ? 

 I have not seen you before ; why did you not bring your 

 niece with you ? " 



Charlotte showed all her teeth in a forced smile as she 

 replied, ^'I suppose you mean my cousin, Miss Dysart 

 she won't be with me till the day after to-morrow." 



" Oh, I'm so sorry," replied Pamela, with the sympathetic 

 politeness that made strangers think her manner too good 

 to be true ; " and Mr. Lambert tells me she plays tennis 

 so well." 



*' Why, what does he know about her tennis playing ? " 

 said Charlotte, turning sharply towards Lambert. 



The set on the nearer court was over, and the two young 

 men who had played in it strolled up to the group as she 

 spoke. Mr. Lambert expanded his broad chest, gave his 

 hat an extra tilt over his nose, and looked rather more self- 

 complacent than usual as he replied : 



" Well, I ought to know something about it, seeing I took 

 her in hand when she was in short petticoats — taught her 

 her paces myself, in fact." 



Mr. Hawkins, the shorter of the two players who had 

 just come up, ceased from mopping his scarlet face, and 

 glanced from Mr. Lambert to Pamela with a countenance 

 devoid of expression, save that conferred by the elevation 

 of one eyebrow almost to the roots of his yellow hair, 

 Pamela's eyes remained unresponsive, but the precipitancy 

 with which she again addressed herself to Mr. Lambert 

 showed that a disposition to laugh had been near. 



Charlotte turned away with an expression that was the 

 reverse of attractive. When her servants saw that look 

 they abandoned excuse or discussion ; when the Lismoyle 

 beggars saw it they checked the flow of benediction and fled. 

 Even the archdeacon, through the religious halo that habitu- 

 ally intervened between him and society, became aware that 

 the moment was not propitious for speaking to Miss Mullen 

 about his proposed changes in the choir, and he drifted 

 away to think of diocesan matters, and to forget as far as 

 possible that he was at a lawn-tennis party. 



Outside the group stood the young man who had been 

 playing in the set with Mr. Hawkins. He was watching 

 through an eyeglass the limp progress of the game in the 



