"It has worked!" said she to herself. "_Pour le coup Philippe je te
tiens_!"

Lord Colambre appeared this day more sensible than he had ever yet
seemed to the charms of the fair Isabel.

"Many a tennis-ball, and many a heart, is caught at the rebound," said
Lady Dashfort. "Isabel! now is your time!"

And so it was--or so, perhaps, it would have been, but for a
circumstance which her ladyship, with all her genius for intrigue,
had never taken into her consideration. Count O'Halloran came to
return the visit which had been paid to him; and, in the course of
conversation, he spoke of the officers who had been introduced to him,
and told Lady Dashfort that he had heard a report which shocked him
much--he hoped it could not be true--that one of these officers had
introduced his mistress as his wife to Lady Oranmore, who lived in the
neighbourhood. This officer, it was said, had let Lady Oranmore send
her carriage for this woman; and that she had dined at Oranmore with
her ladyship and her daughters. "But I cannot believe it! I cannot
believe it to be possible, that any gentleman, that any _officer_
could do such a thing!" said the count.

"And is this all?" exclaimed Lady Dashfort. "Is this all the terrible
affair, my good count, which has brought your face to this prodigious
length?"

The count looked at Lady Dashfort with astonishment.