‘I thought you said he admired her daughter,’ put in Miss Browning to her irritated friend.

’Well! perhaps I did, and perhaps it was so; I am sure I can’t tell; he was a great deal at the house.  Miss Dixon keeps a school in the same house now, and I am sure she does it a great deal better.’

‘The earl and the countess are very fond of Mrs. Gibson,’ said Miss Browning.  ’I know, for Lady Harriet told us when she came to drink tea with us last autumn; and they desired Mr. Preston to be very attentive to her when she lived at Ashcombe.’

‘For goodness’ sake don’t go and repeat what I’ve been saying about Mr. Preston and Mrs. Kirkpatrick to her ladyship.  One may be mistaken, and you know I only said “people talked about it."’

Miss Hornblower was evidently alarmed lest her gossip should be repeated to the Lady Harriet, who appeared to be on such an intimate footing with her Hollingford friends.  Nor did Miss Browning dissipate the illusion.  Lady Harriet had drunk tea with them, and might do it again; and, at any rate, the little fright she had put her friend into was not a bad return for that praise of Mr. Roscoe, which had offended Miss Browning’s loyalty to Mr. Gibson.

Meanwhile Miss Piper and Miss Phoebe, who had not the character of esprit-forts to maintain, talked of the dresses of the people present, beginning by complimenting each other.

’What a lovely turban you have got on, Miss Piper, if I may be allowed to say so:  so becoming to your complexion!’

‘Do you think so?’ said Miss Piper, with ill-concealed gratification; it was something to have a ‘complexion’ at forty-five.  ’I got it at Brown’s, at Somerton, for this very ball.  I thought I must have something to set off my gown, which isn’t quite so new as it once was; and I have no handsome jewellery like you’—­looking with admiring eyes at a large miniature set round with pearls, which served as a shield to Miss Phoebe’s breast.

‘It is handsome,’ that lady replied.  ’It is a likeness of my dear mother; Sally has got my father on.  The miniatures were both taken at the same time; and just about then my uncle died and left us each a legacy of fifty pounds, which we agreed to spend on the setting of our miniatures.  But because they are so valuable Sally always keeps them locked up with the best silver, and hides the box somewhere; she never will tell me where, because she says I’ve such weak nerves, and that if a burglar, with a loaded pistol at my head, were to ask me where we kept our plate and jewels, I should be sure to tell him; and she says, for her part, she would never think of revealing under any circumstances. (I’m sure I hope she won’t be tried.) But that’s the reason I don’t wear it often; it’s only the second time I’ve had it on; and I can’t even get at it, and look at it, which I should like to do.  I shouldn’t have had it on to-night, but that Sally gave it out to me, saying it was but a proper compliment to pay to the Duchess of Menteith, who is to be here in all her diamonds.’