TJlc Real Charlotte. 155 



with Lady Dysart's present mood, and might also be to her 

 own personal advantage. 



'' I hope your dress did not suffer last night, Miss Fitz- 

 patrick ? Mine was ruined, but that was because Mr. 

 Dysart would make me climb on to the box for the last 

 scene." 



"No, thank you, Miss Hope-Drummond — at least, it 

 only got a little sign of dust." 



" Really ? How nice ! How lucky you were, weren't 

 you'! " 



'^ She may have been lucky about her dress," interrupted 

 Garry, " but I'm blowed if she could have seen much of 

 the acting ! Why on earth did you let Hawkins jam you 

 into that old brougham, Miss Fitzpatrick ? " 



" Garry," said Lady Dysart with unusual asperity, " how 

 often am I to tell you not to speak of grown-up gentlemen 

 as if they were little boys like yourself ? Run off to your 

 lessons. If you have finished, Miss Fitzpatrick," she con- 

 tinued, her voice chilling again, " I think we will go into 

 the drawing-room." 



It is scarcely to be wondered at that Francie found the 

 atmosphere of the drawing-room rather oppressive. She 

 was exceedingly afraid of her hostess ; her sense of her 

 misdoings was, like a dog's, entirely shaped upon other 

 people's opinions, and depended in no way upon her own 

 conscience ; and she had now awakened to a belief that 

 she had transgressed very badly indeed. " And if she " 

 C'she" was Lady Dysart, and for the moment Francie's 

 standard of morality) " was so angry about me sitting in the 

 brougham with him," she thought to herself, as, having 

 escaped from the house, she wandered alone under the 

 oaks of the shady back avenue, '* what would she think if 

 she knew the whole story ? " 



In Francie's society " the whole story " would have beon 

 listened to with extreme leniency, if not admiration ; in 

 fact, some episodes of a similar kind had before now been 

 confided by our young lady to Miss Fanny Hemphill, and 

 had even given her a certain standing in the eyes of that 

 arbiter of manners and morals. But on this, as 0:1 a previ- 

 ous occasion, she did not feel disposed to take Miss Hemp- 

 hill into her confidence. For one thintj, she was less dis- 



