Lady Douglass approached the task of pouring out tea with the hopeless air of one who scarcely hoped to escape error, and when she had asked for and obtained particulars concerning tastes, Clarence Mills came, and his presence seemed to upset all the table plans; Mrs. Douglass arrested her action as she started to pour tea into the sugar basin. The arrival of Miss Loriner enabled her to resign the position. Going across to sit beside Gertie, she gave a highly interesting account of the way in which she had by sheer force of will conquered the cigarette habit; at present she consumed but twenty a day, unless, of course, special circumstances provided an excuse. "Not for me, thanks," said Gertie, shaking her head. "I can't smoke; and if I could, I shouldn't." "Tell me!" begged Lady Douglass; "how is that eccentric old gentleman we met at the Zoological Gardens?--Crew, or Brew, or some astonishing name of the kind?" "I don't suppose," answered the girl defensively, "that you really want to know how he is, but Mr. Trew is quite well, and he isn't in the least eccentric, and he doesn't profess to be a gentleman." Henry touched her shoulder with a gesture of appeal; she gave an impatient movement. "But how extremely interesting," cried Lady Douglass, with something like rapture. "And do most of your friends work for a living?" "All of 'em. I don't care for loafers." "I myself have been up to my eyebrows in industry this week," said the other, self-commiseratingly. "I sometimes wish charity could be abolished altogether. It does entail such an enormous amount of hard labour. One might as well be in Wormwood Scrubbs." She paused and looked at the girl intently. "By the bye, where is Wormwood Scrubbs? One often hears of it." "Over beyond Shepherd's Bush." "Have you ever been there?" "No," answered Gertie; "and I've never been to Portland, and I'm not acquainted with Dartmoor, and I don't know much about Newgate. Why do you ask?" "I am hugely interested in prison life," declared the other. "You mustn't be surprised," interposed Henry, addressing Gertie, "at any new subject that my sister-in-law mentions. I haven't heard her speak of this before; and it's only fair to her to say that when she takes up anything fresh, she drops it long before it has the chance of becoming stale. Another cup?" He went to the table. "A strange lad," said Lady Douglass musingly. "His heart is in the right place, but sometimes I wonder whether it is the right kind of heart. Do you mind dining at seven for once in your life. Miss Higham? It's a ridiculous hour, I know, but we must be at the hall sharp by eight. Miss Loriner will show you your room when you are ready. I have a thousand and one things to do," she added exhaustedly.