The Real Charlotte. 177 



Christopher looked at his mother with a singularly ex- 

 pressionless face. 



" Gorman hasn't mentioned it to me yet, or William 

 either." 



" If you had not interrupted me, Christopher," said poor 

 Lady Dysart, resentful of this irreproachably filial rebuke, 

 " I would have told you that none of the servants breathed 

 a word on the subject to me. Evelyn was told it by her 

 maid." 



" How Evelyn can discuss such things with her maid, I 

 cannot imagine," said Pamela, with unwonted heat ; " and 

 Davis is such a particularly detestable woman." 



" I do not care in the least what sort of woman she is, she 

 does hair beautifully, which is more than I can say for you," 

 replied Lady Dysart, with an Uhlan-like dash into the 

 enemy's country. 



" I suppose it was by Davis' advice that Evelyn made a 

 point of ignoring Miss Fitzpatrick this whole morning," 

 continued Pamela, with the righteous wrath of a just 

 person. 



" It was quite unnecessary for her to trouble herself," 

 broke in Lady Dysart witheringly ; '' Christopher atoned 

 for all her deficiencies — taking advantage of Mr. Hawkins' 

 absence, I suppose." 



" If Hawkins had been there," said Christopher, with the 

 slowness that indicated that he was trying not to stammer, 

 " it would have saved me ihe trouble of making c — conver- 

 sation for a person who did not care about it." 



" You may make your mind easy on that point, my 

 dear ! " Lady Dysart shot this parting shaft after her son 

 as he turned away towards the smoking-room. " To do her 

 justice, I don't think she is in the least particular, so long 

 as she has a man to talk to ! " 



It is not to be wondered at, that, as Francie drove 

 through Lismoyle, she felt that the atmosphere was laden 

 with reprobation of her and her conduct. 



Her instinct told her that the accident to Captain 

 Cursiter's launch, and her connection with it, would be a 

 luscious topic of discourse for everyone, from Mrs. Lambert 

 downwards ; and the thought kept her from deriving full 

 satisfaction from the Bruff carriage and pair. Even when 



