’I’ve made the cheque for five-and-twenty.  You can cash it at your milliner’s,’ said Maulevrier.  ’I should not like Smithson to know that you had been obliged to ask me for the money.’

’Apropos to Mr. Smithson, do you know if he is in quite the best society?’ asked Lesbia.

’I don’t know what you mean by quite the best.  A man of Smithson’s wealth can generally poke his nose in anywhere, if he knows how to behave himself.  But of course there are people with whom money and fine houses have no weight.  The Conservatives are all civil to Smithson because he comes down handsomely at General Elections, and is useful to them in other ways.  I believe that Smithson’s wife, if she were a thorough-bred one, could go into any society she liked, and make her house one of the most popular in London.  Perhaps that is what you really wanted to ask.

‘No, it wasn’t,’ answered Lesbia, carelessly; ’I was only talking for the sake of talking.  A thousand thanks for the cheque, you best of brothers.’

’It is not worth talking about; but, Lesbia, don’t play cards any more.  Believe me, it is not good form.’

’Well, I’ll try to keep out of it in future.  It is horrid to see one’s sovereigns melting away; but there’s a delightful excitement in winning.’

‘No doubt,’ answered Maulevrier, with a remorseful sigh.

He spoke as a reformed plunger, and with many a bitter experience of the race-course and the card-room.  Even now, though he had steadied himself wonderfully, he could not get on without a little mild gambling—­half-crown pool, whist with half-guinea points—­but when he condescended to such small stakes he felt that he had settled down into a respectable middle-aged player, and had a right to rebuke the follies of youth.

Lesbia flew to the piano and sang one of her little German ballads directly Maulevrier was gone.  She felt as if a burden had been lifted from her soul, now that she was able to pay Mr. Smithson without waiting to ask Lady Maulevrier for the money.  And as she sang she meditated upon Maulevrier’s remarks about Smithson.  He knew nothing to the man’s discredit, except that he had grown rich in a short space of time.  Surely no man ought to be blamed for that.  And he thought that Mr. Smithson’s wife might make her house the most popular in London.  Lesbia, in her mind’s eye, beheld an imaginary Lady Lesbia Smithson giving dances in that magnificent mansion, entertaining Royal personages.  And the doorways would be festooned with roses, as she had seen them the other night at a ball in Grosvenor Square; but the house in Grosvenor Square was a hovel compared with the Smithsonian Palace.

Lesbia was beginning to be a little tired of Lady Kirkbank and her surroundings.  Life taken prestissimo is apt to pall, Lesbia sighed as she finished her little song.  She was beginning to look upon her existence as a problem which had been given to her to solve, and the solution just it present was all dark.