"Mrs. Chantrey."
Mrs. Vereker ventured to say feebly:
"Mrs. Chantrey has already dined here twice this season."
"She may be dining here oftener than you think," was Lord Baudesert's menacing reply, and Mrs. Vereker, in her mind's eye, saw Mrs. Chantrey as the future Lady Baudesert, presiding with much majesty over the British Embassy.
Some girls were required for the unmarried men who were asked. It was the unwritten law that at dinners only one of Mrs. Vereker's covey should appear at the table--an honour which was always received with nervous apprehension by the successful candidate. This time it was Isabella who was the Jephtha's daughter of the occasion. Mrs. Vereker suggested several girls, but each one was remorselessly thrown out by Lord Baudesert on various grounds. Presently he asked:
"What is the name of that girl who was here on the afternoon the two South Americans called, and helped to pull us out of the hole?"
"Miss Armytage," replied Mrs. Vereker.
"She struck me as rather an unusual sort of a girl."
Mrs. Vereker, with her usual capacity for misunderstanding Lord Baudesert's meaning, replied faintly:
"Oh, yes, very unusual! She is from a little town called Bardville in Tennessee, or is it Indiana? I forget which. Of course she would not do at all, and we never thought of suggesting her."