"Before then ye can make some stir, both with Miss Boyle and with Captain Lyndwood."
"I hate his mother and his cousin," said the Countess abruptly. "Is not this girl a friend of theirs? I would do something to sting them."
The maid looked over her shoulder.
"A notice in the Gazette—were like fire to straw——"
The Countess glanced at her.
"I will put it in; what is that she says of me? A sneer, I doubt not; they think I am a fool or indifferent; her refined love letters! She is like the others for all her quiet face; what is there in my lord for a little saint to adore?" She laughed bitterly. "I swear Sir Francis is the better man."
"He will prove himself so, or endeavour to," answered Honoria; "if we once bring them together over the matter of Selina Boyle."
"Ye think the Gazette the thing?"
"Yes, something carefully worded."
"Would they put it in?"