"Did she, though?" said Lord Fallowfeild. "But the marriage was broken off, my dear."
He made this remark triumphantly, feeling it showed great acuteness.
"Oh, dear no! indeed it wasn't," his daughter replied. "Lord Sokeington behaved in the most outrageous manner. At the last moment he never proposed to her at all. And then it came out that for years he had been living with one of the still-room maids."
"Louisa!" cried Lady Alicia, turning scarlet.
"Had he, though? The old scoundrel!"
"Papa," cried Lady Alicia.
"So he was, my dear. Very bad old man, Sokeington. Very amusing old man too, though."
And, overcome by certain reminiscences, Lord Fallowfeild chuckled a little, shamefacedly. His second daughter thereupon arranged the folds of her mauve cashmere, with bent head.—"It is very clear papa and Shotover have been together to-day," she thought. "Shotover's influence over papa is always demoralising. It's too extraordinary the subjects men joke about and call amusing when they get together."
A pause followed, a brief cessation of hostilities, during which Mr. Quayle looked inquiringly at his three companions.
"Alicia fancies herself shocked," he said to himself, "and my father fancies himself wicked, and Louisa fancies herself a chosen vessel. Strong delusion is upon them all. The only question is whose delusion is the strongest, and who, consequently, will first renew the fray? Ah! the chosen vessel! I thought as much."