dinner-party without fish to-night."

"She has _walked_ over to Maundell," said Lord Walderhurst--"after
yesterday?"

"There was not a pair of wheels left in the stable," answered Lady
Maria. "It is disgraceful, of course, but she is a splendid walker, and
she said she was not too tired to do it. It is the kind of thing she
ought to be given the Victoria Cross for--saving one from a dinner-party
without fish."

The Marquis of Walderhurst took up the cord of his monocle and fixed the
glass rigidly in his eye.

"It is not only four miles to Maundell," he remarked, staring at the
table-cloth, not at Lady Maria, "but it is four miles back."

"By a singular coincidence," said Lady Maria.

The talk and laughter went on, and the lunch also, but Lord Walderhurst,
for some reason best known to himself, did not finish his. For a few
seconds he stared at the table-cloth, then he pushed aside his nearly
disposed-of cutlet, then he got up from his chair quietly.

"Excuse me, Maria," he said, and without further ado went out of the
room, and walked toward the stables.


There was excellent fish at Maundell; Batch produced it at once, fresh,
sound, and desirable. Had she been in heir normal spirits, Emily would