“Well, she flirted with every gentleman present at each party, young and old.”

“With every one?”

“Yes, or nearly so.”

“This is enough to show the groundlessness of your apprehensions. Mrs. Percival may have been too richly endowed with vivacity, but my suspicion is that her freedom arises, in great part, from her conscious guilelessness and her moral self-possession.”

“Again I say I hope you may be right, and I wrong.”

“Why so emphasise that word hope? Have you observed any other instances of what you deem your wife’s impropriety?”

“Yes,” he replied, with a sigh.

“Relate them.”

“The other day my wife induced me to take her to the flower-show held in the gardens of the Botanic Society, Regent’s Park.”

“She asked you to take her?” I interposed.