Lady Blixworth's satirical smile met Trix across the table. Trix felt mean when she did no more than laugh weakly in response to Barmouth's imperious suggestion. She understood what Lady Blixworth meant. 'If we cut everybody who's disreputable,' observed that lady sweetly, 'we can all live in small houses and save up for the Death Duties.' 'You're joking, Viola!' Lady Barmouth complained; she was almost sure of it. 'For my part, if Mr. Fricker will put me on to a good thing--isn't that the phrase, Mortimer?--I shall be very grateful and ask him to dinner--no, lunch; he can come to that without Mrs. Fricker. Why, you used to stand up for them, Sarah!' 'Things are different now,' said Mrs. Bonfill, with a touch of severity. 'Mrs. Bonfill means that circumstances have changed--changed completely,' Lord Barmouth explained. 'I thought she must mean that,' murmured Lady Blixworth, gratefully. 'You can't touch pitch without being defiled--defiled,' remarked Lord Barmouth, with an unpleasantly direct look at Trix. Everybody nodded with a convinced air. 'That's right, Barmouth,' said Sir Stapleton Stapleton-Staines, a gentleman with a good estate in that part of the country. 'In my opinion that's right.' That being settled, Lady Barmouth rose. Next morning, after church (everybody went except Lady Blixworth, who had announced on going to bed that she would have a headache until lunch), Mervyn took Trix for a walk round the place. It was then, for the first time, her fright wearing off, that the truth of the position flashed on her in all its brilliance. She was no mere Saturday-to-Monday visitor; she had come to see what was to be her home; she was to be mistress of it all some day. Mervyn's words, and his manner still more, asserted this and reminded her of it every moment: the long stately façade of the house, the elaborate gardens, the stretches of immemorial turf, all the spacious luxury of the pleasure-grounds, every fountain, every statue, he pointed out, if not exactly for her approval, yet as if she had a right to an account of them, and was to be congratulated on their excellence. 'I have a great deal to give--look at it all. I give it all to you!' Some such words summarise roughly Mervyn's tone and demeanour. Trix grew eager and excited as the fumes of greatness mounted to her head; she hugged the anticipation of her splendour. What a victory it was! Think of the lodging-houses, the four years with Vesey Trevalla, the _pensions_, think even of the flat--the flat and the debts--and then look round on this! Was not this the revenge indeed?