So, at least, he would have said. In reality, he got a good deal of pleasure out of his _fiancee's_ success. Letty, indeed, was enjoying herself greatly. This political world, as she had expected, satisfied her instinct for social importance better than any world she had yet known. She was determined to get on in it; nor, apparently, was there likely to be any difficulty in the matter. George's friends thought her a pretty, lively creature, and showed the usual inclination of the male sex to linger in her society. She mostly wanted to be informed as to the House and its ways. It was all so new to her!--she said. But her ignorance was not insipid; her questions had flavour. There was much talk and laughter; Letty felt herself the mistress of the table, and her social ambitions swelled within her. Suddenly George's attention was recalled to the Maxwell table by the break-up of the group around it. He saw Lady Maxwell rise and look round her as though in search of someone. Her eyes fell upon him, and he involuntarily rose at the same instant to meet the step she made towards him. "I must say another word of thanks to you"--she held out her hand. "That girl and her grandmother were most grateful to you." "Ah, well!--I must come and make my report. Sunday, I think you said?" She assented. Then her expression altered: "When do you speak?" The question fell out abruptly, and took George by surprise. "I? On Monday, I believe, if I get my turn. But I fear the British Empire will go on if I don't!" She threw a glance of scrutiny at his thin, whimsical face, with its fair moustache and sunburnt skin. "I hear you are a good speaker," she said simply. "And you are entirely with Lord Fontenoy?" He bowed lightly, his hands on his sides. "You'll agree our case was well put? The worst of it--" Then he stopped. He saw that Lady Maxwell had ceased to listen to him. She turned her head towards the door, and, without even saying good-bye to him, she hurried away from him towards the further end of the room. "Maxwell, I see!" said Tressady to himself, with a shrug, as he returned to his seat. "Not flattering--but rather pretty, all the same!" He was thinking of the quick change that had remade the face while he was talking to her--a change as lovely as it was unconscious. Lord Maxwell, indeed, had just entered the dining-room in search of his wife, and he and she now left it together, while the rest of the Leven party gradually dispersed. Letty also announced that she must go home. "Let me just go back into the House and see what is going on," said George. "Ten to one I sha'n't be wanted, and I could see you home."