Miss Chressham sighed. She could no more have confided in her aunt than in a child. My lord's troubles were not to be helped by his mother; yet one matter his cousin brought herself to mention, since it must be faced sooner or later.
"Rose is too extravagant. I think it begins to weigh with him."
The Countess Agatha was drawing on her fine silk gloves.
"Well, my dear," she smiled sweetly, "what did he marry that woman for? Not to stint himself."
"Stint himself!" Miss Chressham smiled too, but sadly. "His entertainments cost thousands, and his losses at cards—I do not care to think of them. No fortune could stand it, and Mr. Hilton, I hear, has lost money in Holland."
"And what of Selina Boyle?" asked the Countess Agatha, with her trick of changing the subject at random, as if she never listened to what was said to her. "And that odious stuff in the Gazette? I hope you told her that it was too foolish to be noticed, and that I laughed at it; but, of course, I have no doubt it is true, nor that that impossible Lavinia wrote it."
"I suppose it can be lived down," answered Susannah. "But Sir Francis and Mr. Boyle are furious."
"Do you think 'twill come to a duel with Rose?" asked the Countess vaguely.
"No—oh, no." Miss Chressham was positive.