"Must you?" said George, "How odd! As though one went to tea with a woman for the sake of talking about the very same things you have been doing all day, and are probably sick to death of already." "Never mind," said Letty, with her little air of sharp wisdom. "I _know_ they do it, and I shall have to do it too. I shall pick it up." "Will you? Of course you will! Only, when I've got a big Bill on, let me do a little of it for myself--give me some of the credit!" Letty laughed maliciously. "I don't know why you've taken such a dislike to her," she said, but in rather a contented tone, as her eye once more travelled across to Lady Maxwell. "Does she trample on her husband, after all?" Tressady gave an impatient shrug. "Trample on him? Goodness, no! That's all part of the play, too--wifely affection and the rest of it. Why can't she keep out of sight a little? We don't want the women meddling." "Thank you, my domestic tyrant!" said Letty, making him a little bow. "How much tyranny will you want before you accept those sentiments?" he asked her, smiling tenderly into her eyes. Both had a moment's pleasant thrill; then George sprang up. "Ah, here they are at last!--the General, and all the lot. Now, I hope, we shall get some dinner." Tressady had, of course, to introduce his elderly cousins and his three or four political friends to his future wife; and, amid the small flutter of the performance, the break-up and disappearance of the rival party passed unnoticed. When Tressady's guests entered the dining-room which looks on the terrace, and made their way to the top table reserved for them, the Leven dinner, near the door, was already half through. George's little banquet passed merrily enough. The grey-haired General and his wife turned out to be agreeable and well-bred people, quite able to repay George's hospitality by the dropping of little compliments on the subject of Letty into his half-yielded ear. For his way of taking such things was always a trifle cynical. He believed that people say habitually twice what they mean, whether in praise or blame; and he did not feel that his own view of Letty was much affected by what other people thought of her.