“Mamma!” she exclaimed, her cheeks tingling, “I wish you would not talk like that. It’s so vul—so horrid. I would not marry Lionel Montella, even if he asked me, because I do not consider myself fitted to become his wife. As he will not ask me, however, I shall be saved the trouble of declining. Have you not heard that he is engaged to Lady Patricia Byrne?” “What!” Mrs. Emanuel sat bolt upright. “This is news, indeed. Who is Lady Patricia What’s-her-name? A Jewess?” “No; a—Christian—the daughter of Earl Torrens—gloriously beautiful, and with a face like a Greuze. She is far more suitable as a wife for Mr. Montella than a plain, insignificant little creature like myself could ever be.” There was nothing either of mock modesty or bitterness in her words. She knew that she was small and slight, with ordinary features and ordinary abilities. She did not know that when she spoke her eyes sparkled with animation, and that the sweetness of her smile amply compensated for the irregularity of her features. She did not know either that there was a _naïveté_ about her manner which endeared her to those with whom she came into contact. Perhaps, had she known, the charm would no longer have been there. “Lionel Montella has no right to marry a _shicksa_,[3] even if she does belong to the aristocracy,” was Mrs. Emanuel’s stricture. “If you are not good enough for him, why doesn’t he marry a Rothschild? It must be a terrible disappointment to his father, especially after the trouble he has had with Ferdinand.” Footnote 3: Gentile. “Who is Ferdinand?” asked Raie, her cheeks still burning. “Ferdinand Montella, of course. Sir Julian’s son by his first wife, who was a Miss Klonsberg of Birkenhead, and second cousin of your poor papa’s step-brother’s wife. Do you mean to say, child, that you’ve lived with the Montellas all this time without ever hearing of Ferdinand, or that I never told you about him? It seems almost incredible.” Raie became interested. “I have never heard the name until you mentioned it just now,” she replied. “Tell me all about him, please.” Mrs. Emanuel was fond of relating the personal history of anyone with whom she happened to be acquainted.