The Real Charlotte. 163 



despotic and self-confident, felt an inward qualm when he 

 saw Mr. Lambert strolling slowly through the garden with 

 her ladyship, as he was doing this very afternoon, his 

 observant eye taking in everything that Doolan would have 

 preferred that it should not take in, while he paid a fitting 

 attention to Lady Dysart's conversation. 



" I cannot understand why these Victor Verdiers have 

 not better hearts," she was saying, with the dejection of a 

 clergyman disappointed in his flock. " Mrs. Waller told 

 me they were very greedy feeders, and so I gave them the 

 cleanings of the scullery drain^ but they don't seem to care 

 for it. Doolan, of course, said Mrs. Waller was wrong, but 

 I should like to know what you thought about it." 



Mr. Lambert delivered a diplomatic opinion, which 

 sufficiently coincided with Lady Dysart's views, and yet 

 kept her from feeling that she had been entirely in the 

 right. He prided himself as much on his knowledge of 

 women as of roses, and there were ultra feminine qualities 

 in Lady Dysart, which made her act up to his calculations 

 on almost every point. Pamela did not lend herself equally 

 well to his theories ; " she hasn't half the go of her mother. 

 She'd as soon talk to an old woman as to the smartest chap 

 in Ireland," was how he expressed the fine impalpable 

 barrier that he always felt between himself and Miss Dysart. 

 She was now exactly fulfilling this opinion by devoting her- 

 •^If to the entertainment of his wife, while the others were 

 amusing themselves down at the launch \ and being one of 

 those few who can go through unpleasant social duties with 

 '' all grace, and not with half disdain hid under grace," not 

 even Lambert could guess that she desired anything more 

 agreeable. 



" Isn't it disastrous that young Hynes is determined 

 upon going to America ? " remarked Lady Dysart presently, 

 as they left the garden; "just when he had learned 

 Doolan's ways, and Doolan is so hard to please." 



" America is the curse of this country," responded Mr. 

 Lambert gloomily ; *' the people are never easy till they get 

 there and make a bit of money, and then they come 

 swaggering back, saying Ireland's not fit to live in, and end 

 by setting up a public-house and drinking themselves to 

 death. They're sharp enough to know the only way of 



