Barbara was a good sort; he remembered now he had met her before somewhere.  She had evidently taken to the new cousin; but Mildred had not.

Hitherto Mildred had been the undisputed and acknowledged beauty of every party, and she resented Theodora’s presence because she was clever enough not to have any illusions upon the matter of their mutual looks.  She saw Theodora was beautiful and young and charming, and had every advantage of perfect Paris clothes.  Uncle Patrick had been a fool to ask her, and she must take measures to suppress her at once.

Sir Patrick, on the other hand, was very pleased with himself for having given the invitation.  He had made inquiries, and found that Josiah was a man of great and solid wealth, with interests in several things which could be of particular use to himself, and he meant to obtain what he could out of him.

As for Theodora, no living man could do anything but admire her, and Sir Patrick was not an Irishman for nothing.

Hector behaved with tact; he did not at once fly to his darling, but presently she found him beside her.  And the now habitual thrill ran over her when he came near.

He saw the sudden, convulsive clasp of her little hands together; he knew how he moved her, and it gave him joy.

The next batch of arrivals contained Lord Wensleydown, who showed no hesitation as to his desired destination in the saloon.  He made a bee-line for Theodora, and took a low seat at her feet.

Hector, with more caution, was rather to one side.  Rage surged up in him, although his common-sense told him as yet there was nothing he could openly object to in Wensleydown’s behavior.

The little picture of these five people—­Barbara engaging Josiah, and the two men vying with each other to please Theodora—­was gall and wormwood to Mildred.  Freddy Wensleydown had always been one of her most valued friends, and for Hector she had often felt she could experience a passion.

Lord Wensleydown had an immense cachet.  He was exceedingly ugly and exceedingly smart, and was known to have quite specially attractive methods of his own in the art of pleasing beautiful ladies.  He was always unfaithful, too, and they had to make particular efforts to retain him for even a week.

Hector knew him intimately, of course; they had been in the same house at Eton, and were comrades of many years’ standing, and until Theodora’s entrance upon the scene, Hector had always thought of him as a coarse, jolly beast of extremely good company and quaintness.  But now!  He had no words adequate in his vocabulary to express his opinion about him!

To Theodora he appeared an ugly little man, who reminded her of the statue of a satyr she knew in the Louvre.  That was all!

At this juncture Lady Harrowfield, accompanied by Morella Winmarleigh, her lord, and one of her ames damnees, a certain Captain Forester, appeared upon the scene.