When a man had assured her that she was still handsome, she had shaken her head deprecatingly, and had ignored his existence ever after.  She had her doubts regarding the justice of eternal punishment for temporary lapses in the West End, but she sympathized with the missionary who said:  “Thank God we have still got our hell in the East End.”  She knew that all men are alike in the sight of Heaven, but she thought that the licensing justices should be more particular.

She believed that there were some good men.

She had more than once talked seriously to Phyllis on the subject of George Holland.  Of course, George Holland had been indiscreet; the views expressed in his book had shocked his best friends, but think how famous that book had made him, in spite of the publication of Mr. Courtland’s “Quest of the Meteor-Bird.”  Was Phyllis not acting unkindly, not to say indiscreetly, in throwing over a man who, it was rumored, was about to start a new religion?  She herself, Lady Earlscourt admitted, had been very angry with George Holland for writing something that the newspapers found it to their advantage to abuse so heartily; and Lord Earlscourt, being a singularly sensitive man, had been greatly worried by the comments which had been passed upon his discrimination in intrusting to a clergyman who could bring himself to write “Revised Versions” a cure of such important souls as were to be found at St. Chad’s.  He had, in fact, been so harassed—­he was a singularly sensitive man—­that he had found it absolutely necessary to run across to Paris from time to time for a change of scene. (This was perfectly true.  Lord Earlscourt had gone more than once to Paris for a change of scene, and had found it; Lady Earlscourt was thirty-two, and wore evangelical boots.) But, of course, since George Holland’s enterprise had turned out so well socially, people who entertained could not be hard on him.  There was the new religion to be counted upon.  It was just as likely as not that he would actually start a new religion, and you can’t be hard upon a man who starts a new religion.  There was Buddha, for instance,—­that was a long time ago, to be sure; but still there he was, the most important factor to be considered in attempting to solve the great question of the reconcilement of the religions of the East,—­Buddha, and Wesley, and Edward Irving, and Confucius, and General Booth; if you took them all seriously where would you be?

“Oh, no, my dear Phyllis!” continued Lady Earlscourt; “you must not persist in your ill-treatment of Mr. Holland.  If you do he may marry someone else.”

Phyllis shook her head.

“I hope he will, indeed,” said she.  “He certainly will never marry me.”

“Do not be obdurate,” said Lady Earlscourt.  “He may not really believe in all that he put into that book.”

“Then there is no excuse for his publishing it,” said Phyllis promptly.

“But if he doesn’t actually hold the views which he has formulated in that book, you cannot consistently reject him on the plea that he is not quite—­well, not quite what you and I call orthodox.”