his father and mother and cleave only to his wife; showing that she became by marriage an even more than blood relation.  And if the husband’s father and mother were to be nothing to him compared to his wife, how much less than nothing ought the wife’s father and mother be to her compared to her husband.  She herself had been unable to leave her father and mother in order to cleave to Mr. Fisher because they were no longer, when she married, alive, but she certainly would have left them if they had been there to leave.  Not blood, indeed.  Silly talk.

The dinner was very good.  Succulence succeeded succulence.  Costanza had determined to do as she chose in the matter of cream and eggs the first week, and see what happened at the end of it when the bills had to be paid.  Her experience of the English was that they were quiet about bills.  They were shy of words.  They believed readily.  Besides, who was the mistress here?  In the absence of a definite one, it occurred to Costanza that she might as well be the mistress herself.  So she did as she chose about the dinner, and it was very good.

The four, however, were so much preoccupied by their own conversation that they ate it without noticing how good it was.  Even Mrs. Fisher, she who in such matters was manly, did not notice.  The entire excellent cooking was to her as though it were not; which shows how much she must have been stirred.

She was stirred.  It was that Mrs. Wilkins.  She was enough to stir anybody.  And she was undoubtedly encouraged by Lady Caroline, who, in her turn, was no doubt influenced by the Chianti.

Mrs. Fisher was very glad there were no men present, for they certainly would have been foolish about Lady Caroline.  She was precisely the sort of young woman to unbalance them; especially, Mrs. Fisher recognized, at that moment.  Perhaps it was the Chianti momentarily intensifying her personality, but she was undeniably most attractive; and there were few things Mrs. Fisher disliked more than having to look on while sensible, intelligent men, who the moment before were talking seriously and interestingly about real matters, became merely foolish and simpering—­she had seen them actually simpering—­just because in walked a bit of bird-brained beauty.  Even Mr. Gladstone, that great wise statesman, whose hand had once rested for an unforgettable moment solemnly on her head, would have, she felt, on perceiving Lady Caroline left off talking sense and horribly embarked on badinage.

“You see,” Mrs. Wilkins said—­a silly trick that, with which she mostly began her sentences; Mrs. Fisher each time wished to say, “Pardon me—­I do not see, I hear”—­but why trouble?—­“You see,” said Mrs. Wilkins, leaning across towards Lady Caroline, “we arranged, didn’t we, in London that if any of us wanted to we could each invite one guest.  So now I’m doing it.”

“I don’t remember that,” said Mrs. Fisher, her eyes on her plate.