"I have been paying bills!" she said in a high, light voice. "So that you may begin to run up new ones?" "Quite possibly! But where are you going? All this magnificence makes me curious." She sank into a low chair and glanced with bright, interested eyes at her stately companion. But Lady Frances ignored her question. "We shall soon be finished with all vain glories!" she said. "The season is dying--even if it's dying hard. Do you pine for the country, now that the heat has come? I shall expect you to love Tuffnell, you know. It really is quaint! Even I am fond of it." Clodagh looked up eagerly. "Of course I shall love Tuffnell. It has been sweet of your sister to ask me there--but it has been sweeter still of her to ask Nance. You don't know what it will be for me to meet Nance down there--away from everything." Her voice fell a little. Lady Frances laughed pleasantly. "I am so glad you have arranged that she should come right on from Liverpool, instead of staying in town for a night," she said easily. "It will be much the simpler plan. By the way, what day will we arrange to go down? You and I, I mean? Diana's big dance is on the fifth. Suppose we go down a day or two before?" Clodagh responded instantly. "Yes," she said--"yes, certainly. But talking of the dance reminds me of my curiosity. Where _are_ you going to-night?" This time evasion was impossible. Lady Frances turned to the dressing-table and picked up a diamond ornament. "You can fix this in, Rees," she said, "and then go. I am going to the Tamperleighs'," she added carelessly, without looking at Clodagh. "The Tamperleighs'?" "In Grosvenor Place. Dull people." Clodagh picked up a fan that was lying on a table near her, and examined it thoughtfully. "Isn't Lady Tamperleigh an aunt of Sir Walter Gore's?" "Yes; and old Lord Tamperleigh is a cousin of my mother's--which connects Walter and me in a roundabout way." There was a slight silence, while Rees hovered about her mistress with one or two last attentions and then quietly left the room. As she closed the door, Clodagh looked up from the fan she had been studying so attentively. "Lady Frances," she said quickly, "you know Lady Tamperleigh very well?" Lady Frances' eyes became vigilant. "Yes," she said vaguely--"oh, yes!" "Then take me with you to her party--as you took me to the Hensleys' and the Vibrants' last week? I'm wild to go somewhere--to go anywhere to-night." She paused excitedly; then, as her eyes scanned Lady Frances's face, her expression fell. "Of course if there's the least--the very least--difficulty----" With a swift, tactful movement, Lady Frances came towards her. "My dear Clodagh! Don't! You _know_ how proud I am of you. My hesitation was merely----" "Merely what?" Lady Frances laid her hand upon Clodagh's shoulder.