"Not a bit of it. I'm at Duffield's Hotel again for the present. But
I thought I ought to give Phoebe a look up last night. I went there
after dinner. She tells me you have seen Bridget?" said Mark, leaning
forward rather eagerly in his chair.

"Oh yes, it seemed quite the natural thing to do," answered Carrissima,
unable to repress a sigh as she remembered the train of circumstances
which had followed her visit to Golfney Place.

"That sounds as if you wish you hadn't done it!" he suggested.

"Have you seen her yet?" asked Carrissima, perceiving her opportunity.

"No," said Mark; "but I've listened to a good deal about her. Lawrence
is great on the subject. By Jove! according to him she might be the
complete adventuress. He insists she has been trying her hand on the
colonel--not without success!"

"Does the suggestion strike you as being inconceivable?" demanded
Carrissima.

"Oh well, you forget that I have been away for more than a month. I
have no means of forming an opinion----"

"Your previous experiences!" said Carrissima; and Mark stared at the
carpet.

His previous experiences of Bridget had, no doubt, proved entirely
agreeable. During Carrissima's absence from London in the weeks after