"Shall we sit over here?" said Mrs. Lepell, indicating a settee a little apart. Her visit was to the stranger, whose acquaintance she was now really anxious to make. She particularly disliked Mrs. Chandos, and if there was one young woman who was more obnoxious to her than Dominga, it was Blanche Montagu Jones. The family accepted the hint with obvious reluctance, and stood aloof in a group, whispering, giggling and wrangling. "I believe you have never been in India since you were a small child," continued Mrs. Lepell, addressing her companion. "No, I do not remember it; I have lived in Europe for twenty years." "Ah, I wonder what you will think of us all!" Verona raised her eyes to her visitor, then dropped them hastily, but not before Mrs. Lepell had caught their look of unspoken despair. "I am quite an old Anglo-Indian," she continued briskly. "I loathed the country at first, now I am much attached to it; the cold weather will be here in another few weeks. You will enjoy that, it is our gay season." Here it seemed to Mrs. Lepell that her companion gave a slight involuntary shudder. "I am sure you will wonder at the way these mad girls are giggling," said Mrs. Chandos, with a would-be jaunty air, as she approached and indicated Dominga and Pussy. "They are awfully smart, and have been trying on their sister's kind presents." "Why, mother," interposed Blanche (who had no fear of Mrs. Lepell, her husband not being in the factory), "Pussy tells me that besides the beautiful presents she brought out, you divided all Verona's best gowns between her and Dominga!" On such occasions as the present Mrs. Chandos hated her eldest daughter, who had a sharp and utterly fearless tongue. "Oh, you do not understand," she began excitedly. "I see I've come in for a dress-rehearsal," observed Mrs. Lepell, hoping to smooth matters. "Borrowed plumes! secondhand clothes. Ch-a-ah!" sneered Blanche, in a shrill, discordant key. She breathed so hard that all her beads jingled, and her husband retreated precipitately into the verandah. Was Blanche going to have a row with her mother? Oh, she was so fond of rows! Rows commencing with shrill vituperation, screaming abuse, and concluding (in cases of defeat) in hysterics and collapse. "I think you must have come out with the Trevors," continued Mrs. Lepell, as she turned to Verona, "I see they were in the _Egypt_." "Yes, and I met them before; we were at the same hotel in Cannes for three months." "Then you know the Riviera?" "Yes, we generally spent the winter there--or in Florence." "You seem to have travelled a good deal." "We lived on the Continent ever since I grew up. This time last year we were at Homburg." "I wonder if you met my cousins, Sir Ellis and Lady Byng? They go there every season." "Oh, yes, I used to go motoring with them, and played golf with their daughter Eva; she is such a nice girl. We were great friends."