I found it hard to believe that all the "Bunnies" and "Theos" were in such request, but no enlightenment was vouchsafed until our return to Mount Street. If there had been a panic when we left London, the phrase sauve-qui-peut is hardly too strong for the condition we found awaiting us. Some one had industriously spread this story that Mrs. Sawyer was a mere adventuress, and everybody was anxiously disclaiming all acquaintance with her. I have suggested that for months it was impossible to enter South Audley Street without running into Mr. "Reggie" Gorleigh; with my own ears I heard him say: "Mrs. Sawyer? Oh, that South American woman! I think I know who you mean."
For sheer audacity...
"I don't know what else you would expect," said Major Blanstock one day. "People in London will take anything from anybody—and go on taking it so long as they think there's money about. If you whisper that they may afterwards have to make a return, they vanish into thin air. I know nothing of Mrs. Sawyer's affairs; but, if it's true that she has lost all her money, I should have thought that her friends would have rallied round her and shewn that it made no difference. On a strict calculation of one meal against another, they could keep her from starving for a year or two."
"And so I have no doubt they will," I said, though I detest all this modern weighing and balancing.
Where calculation comes in, hospitality goes out.
"She's absolutely deserted!," he cried. "I know, because I'm the only man who goes near her."
"That, Major Blanstock," I said rather sharply, "is neither fair nor true. Consuelo spent a fortnight with us, she was invited to stay longer."
"But would you ask her again?," he sneered; and I could see that he was most offensively hinting that we, like the rest, had dropped her when the bubble was pricked.
"My brother has unfortunately resumed possession of Brackenbury," I told him.
And then I really had to pretend that there was somebody at the other end of the room who wanted to speak to me... I hope I am tolerably good-tempered, but I will not allow every one to make himself a ruler and a judge...