The Real Charlotte. 263 



now resting at her feet, recurred to her without any un- 

 pleasantness. She had fought a losing battle against fate 

 all her life, and she could not be expected to regret having 

 accepted its first overture of friendship, any more than she 

 need be expected to refuse another half glass of that 

 excellent brown sherry that Lambert had just poured out for 

 her. " Charlotte could take her whack," he was wont to 

 say to their mutual friends in that tone of humorous appre- 

 ciation that is used in connection with a gentlemanlike 

 capacity for liquor. 



" Well, how are you all getting on at Tally Ho ? " he said 

 presently, and not all the self-confidence induced by the 

 sherry could make his voice as easy as he wished it to be ; 

 " I hear you've lost your young lady ?" 



Charlotte was provoked to feel the blood mount slowly to 

 her face and remain like a hot straddle across her cheeks 

 and nose. 



" Oh yes," she said carelessly, inwardly cursing the 

 strength of Lambert's liquor, " she took herself off in a huff, 

 and I only hope she's not repenting of it now." 



" What was the row about ? Did you smack her for 

 pulling the cats' tails ? " Lambert had risen from the table 

 and was trimming his nails with a pocket-knife, but out of 

 the tail of his eye he was observing his visitor very closely. 



" I gave her some good advice, and I got the usual 

 amount of gratitude for it," said Charlotte, in the voice of a 

 person who has been deeply wounded, but is not going to 

 make a fuss about it. She had no idea how much Lambert 

 knew, but she had, at all events, one line of defence that 

 was obvious and secure. 



Lambert, as it happened, knew nothing except that there 

 had been what the letter in his pocket described as " a real 

 awful row," and his mordant curiosity forced him to the 

 question that he knew Charlotte was longing for him to ask. 



" What did you give her advice about ? " 



"I may have been wrong," replied Miss Mullen, with the 

 liberality that implies the certainty of having been right, 

 " but when I found that she was carrying on with that good- 

 for-nothing Hawkins, I thought it my duty to give her my 

 opinion, and upon me word, as long as he's here she's well 

 out of the place.'' 



