“Well, really!” protested Lady Grace in genuine displeasure.

Her husband smiled somewhat grimly.  “A vixen’s daughter, my dear!  What can you expect?”

“She behaves like a fishwife’s daughter,” said Lady Grace.  “And if she wasn’t actually eavesdropping I am convinced she heard what I said.”

“So am I,” said the Colonel drily.  “I was about to tax her with it.  Hence her masterly retreat.  But she was not deliberately eavesdropping or she would not have given herself away so openly.  I quite agree with you, my dear.  A match between her and Sir Eustace would not be suitable.  And I also think Sir Eustace would be the first to see it.  Anyhow, I shall take an early opportunity of letting him know that her birth is by no means a high one, and that her presence here is simply due to our kindness.  At the same time, should the rather ludicrous little younger brother take it into his head to follow her up, so far as family goes he is of course too good for her, but I am sorry for the child and I shall put no obstacle in the way.”

“All the same she shall not go to tea there unless Rose is invited too,” said Lady Grace firmly.

“There,” said the Colonel pompously, “I think that you are right.”

Lady Grace simpered a little, and opened her novel.  “It really wouldn’t surprise me to find that she is a born fortune-hunter,” she said.  “I am certain the mother is avaricious.”

“The mother,” said Colonel de Vigne with the deliberation of one arrived at an unalterable decision, “is the most disagreeable, vulgar, and wholly objectionable person that I have ever met.”

“Oh, quite,” said Lady Grace.  “If she were in our set, she would be altogether intolerable.  But—­thank heaven—­she is not!  Now, dear, if you don’t mind, I am going to read myself to sleep.  I have promised Rose to go to the ice carnival to-night, and I need a little relaxation first.”

“I suppose Dinah is going?” said the Colonel.

“Oh, yes.  But she is nothing of a skater.”  Lady Grace suddenly broke into a little laugh.  “I wonder if the redoubtable Mrs. Bathurst does really beat her when she is naughty.  It would be excellent treatment for her, you know.”

“I haven’t a doubt of it,” said the Colonel.  “She is absolutely under her mother’s control.  That great raw-boned woman would have a heavy hand too, I’ll be bound.”

“Oh, there is no doubt Dinah stands very much in awe of her.  I never knew she had any will of her own till she came here.  I always took her for the meekest little creature imaginable.”

“There is a good deal more in Miss Dinah than jumps to the eye,” said the Colonel.  “In fact, if you ask me, I should say she is something of a dark horse.  She is just beginning to feel her feet and she’ll surprise us all one of these days by turning into a runaway colt.”

“Not, I do hope, while she is in my charge,” said Lady Grace.