"Yes, it would--an immensity of good. It would be only fit and proper. That is just one of the things about which a man ought to be able to lie _well;_ though, indeed, in most cases I doubt if it _would_ be a lie. Change a friend into a lover, awaken within him the desire to make you his wife, and, such is the vanity and self-complacency of man, he will at once (in regarding you as _his_ possible property) magnify your charms, and end by contrasting you favorably with every other wife of his acquaintance. _You_ do not come within the pale of my remarks, however, as I speak of ugly women. Phyllis, you are too modest. You give me the impression that all your life through you have been more or less sat upon. Is it not so?" "I believe it is," I answer, laughing; "but I think justly so. Why, only look at my nose; it turns right up; and--and then, you know, Dora was always on the spot to eclipse me." "Indeed I know nothing of the kind. _You_ are infinitely more attractive in my eyes; though I admit Dora has charms, with her complexion and eyes of 'holy blue.' I verily believe you are a hypocrite. Don't you know all the men here rave about you? Don't you know it was a fixed creed in the family that Marmaduke's heart was cased in steel until he destroyed it by marrying you?" "Oh," I say, with a light laugh, though my blood is coursing wildly though my veins, "you exaggerate slightly there, I think. Was he not very much _epris_ with his cousin, Lady Blanche Going, some years ago?" "A mere boy-and-girl attachment. I would as soon dream of lending importance to the passion of a schoolboy in his teens--to the passion of my dear Chips, for instance. Besides, she was several years older than he was--whatever she may be now," says Bebe, with a little grimace. "Was it violent while it lasted?" "I don't remember anything about it; but mamma says it died a natural death after one season. Then she married Colonel Going." "Why does Colonel Going remain away so long?" "Ah! why, indeed, my dear? that is a thing nobody knows. There was no divorce, no formal separation, no _esclandre_ of any kind; he merely put the seas between them, and is evidently determined on keeping them there. To me and my cousins of my own age the colonel is something of a myth; but mamma knew him well about six years ago, and says he was a very fascinating man, and upright, but rather stern." "What a curiously unpleasant story! But didn't people talk?" "Of course they did; they did even worse--they whispered; but her ladyship took no notice, and every one had to confess she behaved beautifully on the occasion. She gave out that her extreme delicacy alone (her constitution is of iron) prevented her accompanying him to India, and she withdrew from society, in the very height of the season, for two whole months. Surely decorum could no further go!" "And then?" "Why, then she reappeared, with her beauty much augmented from the enforced quiet and early hours--and with her mother."