"Is Lady Denham like Sir Keith?"

"No. She is a little plain sort of person, and rather odd, and she thinks nobody in the world is equal to him."

"He seems to be a general favourite," I said.

"Oh yes, of course he is. Everybody sings his praises. And I hate general favourites," cried Thyrza, with sudden heat. "I should like him fifty times as much, if—"

"If everybody else disliked him," I suggested, as she came to a stop.

"Yes."

"Is that perversity, my dear?" I asked.

"I don't know. I hate running with the crowd."

"If the crowd is going in a wrong direction—yes. I would never have you follow a path merely because others follow it."

"If everybody thinks a thing, I am not bound to think the same, I suppose," she said, hotly still.