“Neither can I,” cried Lawrence.  “I always find it difficult to pity a fool.  Anyhow, I hope you have done with her,” he added.

“Lawrence would not let me send Jimmy a present,” said Phoebe.

“Certainly not,” was the answer.  “The whole mischief,” he continued, facing his sister, “was brought about by the first visit you paid to Golfney Place.”

“Oh well,” said Carrissima, “there will scarcely be a question of my patronizing her in the future.  You see, Mrs. Clynesworth will be a quite important personage.”

“We have every reason to be thankful she isn’t Mrs. Faversham,” returned Lawrence.  “For the rest, it’s just the way of the world.”

So he dismissed the topic, and a few minutes later Phoebe inquired whether Carrissima had seen anything of Mark during the last few days.

“He really looks ill,” she insisted.  “He was here yesterday, and I thought he had come to make an appointment to see the new carpet.  He spoke about it the last time, but when I suggested we should go before you left England, he said he was afraid he should be too busy.  I fancy he is bothered about Sir Wilford Scones.”

Carrissima did not see him again before her departure, and she was absent with Colonel Faversham six weeks.  As Lawrence had taken a cottage in the country for the benefit of Victor, Carrissima, on her return to Grandison Square, stood no chance of meeting Mark in Charteris Street.  As a matter of fact, he did not cross her path again until after she came back from her usual round of country-house visits at the end of October, with the intention of settling down for what promised to prove a dreary winter.

Her former avocations had lost their zest; life seemed to have become flat, stale and unprofitable.  She longed for some kind of change, although she knew not what.  At Charteris Street, whither Phoebe had by this time returned, the only news of Mark was that he had spent six weeks mountain-climbing in Switzerland.  Lawrence complained of his brother-in-law’s neglect.

“Phoebe is his only sister,” he said one afternoon, during the first week of November.  “The least he might do is to come and see her now and then.  I say nothing about myself.”

“I have only seen Mark once for five minutes since he came back,” added Phoebe.

“When was that?” asked Carrissima.

“Last week——­”

“And,” suggested Lawrence, “I don’t imagine he would have taken the trouble then if he hadn’t wanted you to do something for him.”

“You see, Carrissima,” Phoebe explained, “Dr. Bunbury’s wife and daughter are coming on a visit to London for a few weeks.  Mark has promised to play cicerone, and he is anxious I shall call and invite the Bunburys here.  Of course I told him I should be quite pleased.  By the bye,” Phoebe added, “I met Sybil Clynesworth the other day.  She said that Jimmy and his wife would soon be home.”