"Then as soon as he had to consider women at all he found it easier to lie to them because of their want of understanding, and chattering tongues, and as he did not consider that they were his equals in anything, no degradation was entailed in making things easy for himself with them, by lying to them." "How ingenuous!" "That is how it seems to me, and so things have gone on--tradition and instinct again! Until even now when man is forced to consider women, the original instinct is still there making him feel that it does not matter lying to them." "I believe you are right. You are not a suffragette?" "Oh, no! I like women to advance in everything, but unless you could destroy their dramatic instinct, and hysteria, I think it would be a pity for a country if they had votes." "You despise women and respect men, then?" "Not at all; it would be like despising bread and respecting water. I only despise weakness in either sex." "Well, Miss Bush, I think you have a wonderfully-stored mind. I don't feel that ninety pounds a year and drudgery is the right thing for you. What is to be done?" Katherine gave one of her rare soft laughs. "Believe me, madam, the lessons I am learning in Your Ladyship's service are worth more to me than my salary. I am quite contented and enjoy my drudgery." "So you are learning lessons--are you!" Lady Garribardine chuckled again. "Of the world, the flesh or the devil?" "A little of all three, perhaps," Katherine answered with shy demureness. "Look here, young woman, I have remarked more than once that you possess a quality--almost unknown in ninety-nine females out of a hundred, and non-existent in the middle classes--a fine sense of humour. It is quite out of place--and like the royal rose imprinted upon the real queen's left shoulder, I expect we shall discover presently that the butcher and baker forebears are all moonshine, and that you are a princess in disguise.--See, that is Windsor--isn't it fine?" "Ah! Yes!" cried Katherine. "It makes one think." They were rushing along the road from Staines where they could see the splendid pile standing out against the sky. "All those old grey stones put together by brutes and fools and brains and force. I will take you there myself some day." "I shall love to go." Then Her Ladyship became quite silent as was her custom when she felt inclined so to be. The obligation to make conversation never weighed upon her. This made her a delightful companion. They arrived at the park gates of Blissington Court about one o'clock, and Katherine Bush felt again a delightful excitement. She had never seen a big English country home except in pictures. The lodge-keeper came out. He was an old man in a quaint livery.