The Real Charlotte. 279 



Lambert felt as if a hot and a cold spray of water had 

 been turned on him alternately. " The Dysarts ? Oh, yes, 

 they've been away for some time," he said, recovering him- 

 self ; " they've been in London, I believe, staying with her 

 people, since you're so anxious to know about them." 



"Why wouldn't I want to know about them?" said 

 Francie, getting off the wall. ** Come on and walk a bit ; 

 it's cold sitting here." 



Lambert walked on by her side rather sulkily ; he was 

 angry with himself for having let his feelings run away with 

 him, and he was angry with Francie for pulling him up so 

 quickly. 



" Christopher Dysart's off again," he said abruptly ; " he's 

 got another of these diplomatic billets." He believed that 

 Francie would find the information unpleasant, and he was 

 in some contradictory way disappointed that she seemed 

 quite unaffected by it. *' He's unpaid attache to old Lord 

 Castlemore at Copenhagen," he went on; "he started last 

 week." 



So Christopher was gone from her too, and never wrote 

 her a line before he went. They're all the same, she 

 thought, all they want is to spoon a girl for a bit, and if she 

 lets them do it they get sick of her, and whatever she does 

 they forget her the next minute. And there was Roddy 

 Lambert trying to squeeze her hand just now, and poor 

 Mrs. Lambert, that was worth a dozen of him, not dead six 

 months. She walked or, and forced herself to talk to him, 

 and to make inquiries about the Bakers, Dr. Rattray, Mr. 

 Corkran, and other lights of Lismoyle society. It was 

 absurd, but it was none the less true that the news that Mr. 

 Corkran was engaged to Carrie Beattie gave her an 

 additional pang. The enamoured glances of the curate 

 were fresh in her memory, and the thought that they were 

 being now bestowed upon Carrie Beattie's freckles and 

 watering eyes was, though ludicrous, not altogether pleasing. 

 She burst out laughing suddenly. 



" I'm thinking of what all the Beatties will look like 

 dressed as bridesmaids," she explained; "four of them, and 

 every one of them roaring, crying, and their noses bright 

 red ! " 



The day was clouding over a little, and a damp wind 



