Isabel nodded. "I see; you recommend the Amy Robsart cure."
"Laisser faire is a most successful course of treatment," added Lady Farley; "I have spent my life in allowing people sufficient rope, and the victims of my indulgence hang in rows, like the tails of Little Bo-peep's flock."
Then Paul met them, and was patted on the back by Mr. Kesterton and praised by Lady Farley. Isabel felt she could not speak to him about his speech before all these people—it would be like saying one's prayers at a ball; so she just looked into his eyes and smiled; and Paul understood.
"Here are the Thistletowns," said Mr. Kesterton, going forward to receive his guests.
Lord Bobby still limped, though he was limping along the road to complete recovery; and as he had won his V.C.—and Violet—his cup of happiness was full. As for his wife, she was lovelier than ever; she had got what she wanted, and there is nothing so becoming to a woman as that.
"Very glad to see you, Lady Robert," exclaimed her host, "I hope your husband is getting all right again, though with such a nurse as he now has I cannot blame him if he lengthens out the long-drawn sweetness of his convalescence to its fullest extent."
Violet held out a daintily gloved hand. "Oh! he is much better, thank you: aren't you, Bobby?"
"Indeed I am," agreed the invalid; "I'm nearly fit again now, but I've had a narrow shave of it with that silly old leg of mine. Those Johnnies of doctors wanted to chop it off at one time, and then my wife and I would only have had three legs between us, like the Isle of Man. Shouldn't we, Vi?"
"Oh! don't dear," pleaded Violet, with a pretty little shudder. "I cannot bear to hear you talk like that."
It was a very merry tea-party; they all liked each other, and the weather was fine—two most important ingredients in a social success. Isabel especially was delightfully happy and important; she felt that Paul was standing on his own ground at last, and that it was very creditable ground to be standing upon; and she took therefore a proprietary interest in the House of Commons, and all that appertained to it.