"Uncomfortable!" he repeated; "why uncomfortable! Ah! perhaps you're right, and I _do_ want another cushion. I'd go and fetch it, Miss Ross, only I'd much rather stay where I am, and talk to you." She shot another scornful glance, not that he was the least abashed by it, and went on:-- "You've got all sorts of duties, cares, responsibilities, but they don't seem to affect you in the least--property, debts, of course" (Sir Henry nodded assent), "politics, position, that charming daughter; a bad day yesterday--you see I know all about it--and a certain loss to-day, if you don't bestir yourself, on the Thames Handicap. Yet there you sit, as unmoved and almost as highly ornamented as a Hindoo idol. I wish I had your secret!" "Very simple," answered the other. "Irons! Nothing but irons! Plenty of them, and put them all in the fire at once. Dividing your cares is like dividing your affections--one balances another, and you carry them as easy as a milkmaid carries her pails." "That's all very fine in theory," replied Miss Ross; "but there's such a thing as spilt milk, and a dozen cold irons won't prevent a hot one burning your fingers. There's a hot one to-day in the Thames Handicap. Never mind how I know it, Sir Henry, but I _do_ know it. This horse they call Outrigger has no more chance of winning than your hat! Why do you tie that hideous gauze thing round it?" Sir Henry was equal to the occasion. "Suits my style of ugliness," he answered; adding, with well-assumed carelessness--"So Outrigger won't win, Miss Ross. Why won't he?" "Not meant!" "I never thought he was," said Sir Henry, who had backed the horse for more money than he liked to think of. "My impression, you see, agrees with your information. I don't doubt it, of course, particularly as you won't tell me where you got it." "I won't, indeed," asseverated Jin, who would have been puzzled to name her authority, inasmuch as the startling intelligence originated in her own fertile brain. For particular reasons this unscrupulous young lady was anxious the whole party from The Lilies should start for the races together, while she alone remained at home. In discussing their plans the evening before, great lukewarmness had been shown on this point; Helen, perhaps for particular reasons, too, professing indifference to the coming day's sport. Even Sir Henry did not seem to have made up his mind; but Miss Ross argued, correctly enough, that if he went, Mrs. Lascelles would go, and the rest of the party would surely accompany their hostess; then, at the last moment, she could frame an excuse, and so have the day to herself. Therefore it was she made no scruple in calumniating the merits of Outrigger and the honesty of his owners.