"And speedily," put in Alice—"the sooner the better!"
"Yes, yes—speedily!"
Lady Fletcher gave an uneasy glance in Opal's direction before she continued.
"You are too young to have heard the story, Alice, but her grandmother—a black-eyed Spanish lady of high rank—was made quite unpleasantly notorious by her associations with a brother of Lady Henrietta Verdayne. He was an unprincipled roué—this Lord Hubert Aldringham—a libertine who openly boasted of the conquests he had made abroad. Being appointed to many foreign posts in the diplomatic service, he was naturally on intimate terms with people of rank and royalty. They say he was very fascinating, with the devil's own eye, and ten times as devilish a heart—"
"Why, Mamma!"
Alice was shocked.
"I am only repeating what they said, child," apologized the elder woman meekly. "Women will be fools, you know, over a handsome face and a tender voice—some women, I mean—and that's what Opal has to fight against."
"Poor Opal," murmured Alice, "I did not know!"
"Some even go so far as to say—"
Again Lady Fletcher looked up apprehensively, but Opal was still absorbed in her dreams.