154 The Real Charlotte, 



Francie and Hawkins emerged from the brougham, and 

 mingled quietly with the crowd in the general break-up that 

 followed. The point at issue between them had not been 

 settled, but arrangements had been made for the following 

 day that ensured a renewal of the argument. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



The crash of the prayer gong was the first thing that Francie 

 heard next morning. She had not gone to sleep easily the 

 night before. It had been so much pleasanter to lie awake, 

 that she had done so till she had got past the stage when 

 the process of going to sleep is voluntary, and she had 

 nearly exhausted the pleasant aspect of things and got to 

 their wrong side when the dawn stood at her window, a 

 pallid reminder of the day that was before her, and she 

 dropped into prosaic slumber. She came downstairs in a 

 state of some anxiety as to whether the chill that she had 

 perceived last night in Lady Dysart's demeanour would be 

 still apparent. Breakfast was nearly over when she got into 

 the room, and when she said good morning to Lady Dysart. 

 she felt, though she was not eminently perceptive of the 

 shades in a well-bred manner, that she had not been re- 

 stored to favour. 



She sat down at the table, with the feeling that was very 

 familiar to her of being in disgrace, combating with the 

 excitement and hurry of her nerves in a way that made her 

 feel almost hysterical ; and the fear that the strong reveal- 

 ing light of the long windows opposite to which she was 

 sitting would show the dew of tears in her eyes, made her 

 bend her head over her plate and scarcely raise it to re- 

 spond to Pamela's good-natured efforts to put her at her 

 ease. Miss Hope-Drummond presently looked up from 

 her letters and took a quiet stare at the discomposed face 

 opposite to her. She had no particular dislike for Francie 

 beyond the ordinary rooted distrust which she felt as a 

 matter of course for those whom she regarded as fellow- 

 competitors, but on general principles she was pleased that 

 discomfiture had come to Miss Fitzpatrick. It occurred to 

 her that a deepening of the discomfiture would suit well 



