Fallow field subsequently; the fair Louisa, unhurt and with a quiet mind,
in Lymport; and this amount of truth the rumours can be reduced to--that
Louisa and Mr. George had been acquainted. Rumour and gossip know how to
build: they always have some solid foundation, however small. Upwards of
twelve years had run since Louisa went to the wife of the brewer--
a period quite long enough for Mr. George to forget any one in; and she
was altogether a different creature; and, as it was true that Mr. George
was a dull one, she was, after the test she had put him to, justified in
hoping that Mel's progeny might pass unchallenged anywhere out of
Lymport. So, with Mr. George facing her at table, the Countess sat down,
determined to eat and be happy.

A man with the education and tastes of a young country squire is not
likely to know much of the character of women; and of the marvellous
power they have of throwing a veil of oblivion between themselves and
what they don't want to remember, few men know much. Mr. George had
thought, when he saw Mrs. Strike leaning to Evan, and heard she was a
Harrington, that she was rather like the Lymport family; but the
reappearance of Mrs. Strike, the attention of the Duke of Belfield to
her, and the splendid tactics of the Countess, which had extinguished
every thought in the thought of himself, drove Lymport out of his mind.

There were some dinner guests at the table-people of Fallow field,
Beckley, and Bodley. The Countess had the diplomatist on one side, the
Duke on the other. Caroline was under the charge of Sir Franks. The
Countess, almost revelling in her position opposite Mr. George, was
ambitious to lead the conversation, and commenced, smiling at Melville:

'We are to be spared politics to-day? I think politics and cookery do
not assimilate.'