Matters never came exactly to a crisis.  Mrs. Pentherby, as a source of personal offence, spread herself over so wide an area that no one woman of the party felt impelled to rise up and declare that she absolutely refused to stay another week in the same house with her.  What is everybody’s tragedy is nobody’s tragedy.  There was ever a certain consolation in comparing notes as to specific acts of offence.  Reggie’s sister-in-law had the added interest of trying to discover the secret bond which blunted his condemnation of Mrs. Pentherby’s long catalogue of misdeeds.  There was little to go on from his manner towards her in public, but he remained obstinately unimpressed by anything that was said against her in private.

With the one exception of Mrs. Pentherby’s unpopularity, the house-party scheme was a success on its first trial, and there was no difficulty about reconstructing it on the same lines for another winter session.  It so happened that most of the women of the party, and two or three of the men, would not be available on this occasion, but Reggie had laid his plans well ahead and booked plenty of “fresh blood” for the departure.  It would be, if any thing, rather a larger party than before.

“I’m so sorry I can’t join this winter,” said Reggie’s sister-in-law, “but we must go to our cousins in Ireland; we’ve put them off so often.  What a shame!  You’ll have none of the same women this time.”

“Excepting Mrs. Pentherby,” said Reggie, demurely.

“Mrs. Pentherby! Surely, Reggie, you’re not going to be so idiotic as to have that woman again!  She’ll set all the women’s backs up just as she did this time.  What is this mysterious hold she’s go over you?”

“She’s invaluable,” said Reggie; “she’s my official quarreller.”

“Your—­what did you say?” gasped his sister-in-law.

“I introduced her into the house-party for the express purpose of concentrating the feuds and quarrelling that would otherwise have broken out in all directions among the womenkind.  I didn’t need the advice and warning of sundry friends to foresee that we shouldn’t get through six months of close companionship without a certain amount of pecking and sparring, so I thought the best thing was to localise and sterilise it in one process.  Of course, I made it well worth the lady’s while, and as she didn’t know any of you from Adam, and you don’t even know her real name, she didn’t mind getting herself disliked in a useful cause.”

“You mean to say she was in the know all the time?”

“Of course she was, and so were one or two of the men, so she was able to have a good laugh with us behind the scenes when she’d done anything particularly outrageous.  And she really enjoyed herself.  You see, she’s in the position of poor relation in a rather pugnacious family, and her life has been largely spent in smoothing over other people’s quarrels.  You can imagine the welcome relief of being able to go about saying and doing perfectly exasperating things to a whole houseful of women—­and all in the cause of peace.”