Miss Phyllis--

"It will give me great pleasure to take you to Lady Mickleham."
So they went, it being then, according to Miss Phyllis' sworn
statement precisely two hours and five minutes since Dolly had
disappeared; and, pursuing the route indicated by the Duke, they
found Lady Mickleham. And Lady Mickleham exclaimed, "Good
gracious, my dear, I'd quite forgotten you! Have you had an ice?
Do take her to have an ice, Sir John." (Sir John Berry was the
next-door neighbor.) And with that Lady Mickleham is said to
have resumed her conversation.

"Did you ever hear anything more atrocious?" concluded Mrs.
Hilary. "I really cannot think what Lord Mickleham is doing."

"You surely mean, what Lady Mickleham--?"

"No, I don't," said Mrs. Hilary, with extraordinary decision.
"Anything might have happened to that poor child!"

"Oh, there were not many of the aristocracy present," said I
soothingly.

"But it's not that so much as the thing itself. She's the most
disgraceful flirt in London."

"How do you know she was flirting?" I inquired with a smile.

"How do I know?" echoed Mrs. Hilary.