“_’Twas your hat did the trick to begin with, my love; you was always so clever about clothes, Kitty. Sure, it was the finest inspiration to wear that modest country straw with its plain ribbon. It caught Her Majesty’s eye from the first moment, and that you know means so much. So modest, sensible and quiet you showed beside poor Susan! Susan, with that tow-row of feathers on her head! ’Tis she who is dished after all: ‘A loud young woman,’ says the Queen to me. ‘I do not approve of Lady Verney’s style.’ And what must she do on the top of it but present herself in my parlour at Fauconberg Hall this very afternoon?--a vast piece of presumption, since the Queen hath forbidden visitors to all and sundry!--And wants an interview of Her Majesty, to apologise--prithee, Kitty, think of it!--for Her Majesty’s having been exposed to such a meeting. She, to apologise for the town! She, to cast her stone at poor Rachel! I have never known my Royal so angry! ‘Are you then not acquainted with my Lady Mandeville?’ She asks our Verney. You should have seen Susan’s face under her red plumes. (I had taken good care Her Majesty should know we_ all _were.) To be brief, Kitty, Verney went forth with her comb considerably cut, and Her Majesty took a twist in the other direction and spoke very kind to me; though regretting the incident, she said she could not find too grave a fault with a display of loyalty. ‘Tell my Lady Kilcroney,’ she says, ‘that about My Person I appreciate loyalty!_’” Denis Kilcroney heard the contents of this missive with a grave countenance. Then, looking at his wife’s charming face, all irradiated between the joys of her good conscience and its unexpected reward, he exclaimed generously that it was a proud day for the House of O’Hara. “Though,” he added, “the proudest moment of it all was when I saw you stand by your friend, me darling girl!” CHAPTER II IN WHICH MISS PAMELA POUNCE IS ORDERED TO PACK Pamela Pounce sat with a bunch of cowslips in one hand and the lid of the ribbon box in the other; she had fallen into a profound muse.