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There was a respite, then. No man, May Forestfield thought, having sinister intentions would act in such a manner; he would either have blazed out at her in a personal interview, when murder might have been done, or he would have written her a cutting letter, stating the discovery he had made, and his consequent intention of getting rid of her. It was plain to Lady Forestfield that Gustave had been misinformed, and that her husband knew nothing. Though a constant attendant at afternoon service at All Saints', and quite familiar with as much of the liturgy as is then and there intoned, May Forestfield was not in the habit of putting much heart into her supplications; but in the belief that a great and deserved punishment had been averted from her, she knelt down and implored the Divine forgiveness for her past crime, and pledged herself to sin no more.

As usual there was a little luncheon party in Seamore-place, to which came Mrs. Ingram and Lady Northaw--of course, unaccompanied by their husbands--and Captain Seaver, of the Blues, and Sir Wolfrey Delapryme. Kate Ingram was a tiny blonde, with pretty fair hair and blue eyes, a creamy complexion, and the wee-est imaginable hands and feet. She was very spirituelle, and better educated than most of her class, spoke French and German to perfection, and acted and sang admirably. Théo herself, whom she much resembled, could not have given more unmistakable point and colour to a chansonette grivoise than did Mrs. Ingram, who was the daughter of a Church dignitary, and the wife of a director of the Bank of England. Her father, long since in his grave, would have been very much astonished at a display of the accomplishments by which his daughter had made herself attractive in the highest quarters; but her husband, like Gallio, 'cared for none of these things.' Lady Northaw was a brunette, with regular features, sleepy black eyes, and blue-black hair; a tall imperial Juno-like woman, with full bust and rounded arms, and a grand way of carrying herself. It is scarcely necessary to say that every rickety little knock-kneed subaltern in the Guards worshipped her. Both ladies were intimate friends of May Forestfield, both were very liberal in all their notions, and both spoke the argot of the day with perfect fluency.