Alfred had fallen a victim to a hussy! That she was a hussy of tender years, as compared with Regina herself, was evident. There was no evidence to prove it, but once the idea had entered Regina's mind it remained there and throve apace. This ignorant, youthful, gay little hussy _must be supplanted_, her influence must be undermined, and Alfred must be lured back to his original nobility. It was curious that no shadow of blame for the noble Alfred presented itself to Regina. If he had been unfaithful it was because he had been tempted by a hussy from the allegiance which had stood the test of over twenty years. If he had left her for other divinities it was because she had not made herself sufficiently alluring to him; and Regina, as she ate the last piece of the second muffin, determined there and then that she would mend her ways. "I will go to a beauty doctor," she told herself. "I will get rid of every blemish that has lessened my attractions for him; I will put myself in the hands of an expert dressmaker; she shall dress me like a fashion-plate; I will be young, I will be slim, I will be attractive, I will win my husband's heart back again." Then her thoughts ran towards the Society for the Regeneration of Women--that darling project of her later years, which she now realized had cost her very dear. From that she must free herself; not publicly, not with any ostensible reason, except that she had worked sufficiently long. Others must take the reins from her hands and she must put forward the plea that new blood was necessary, even essential, in all such undertakings. When she had arrived at this point she was already quite cheerful. She took out her purse from her black and gold bag and deposited a bright new sixpence under her muffin plate as a delicate little reward to the girl whose kindly words had been her first solace, then satisfied herself with a long look at Julia's earrings, and then she opened the little case which contained the tie pin that she intended as an offering to her lord and master. This she determined she would not present to him. A curious fancy took possession of her that she would give him some little symbol of her unaltered affection for him. She had never heard that pink coral was coupled with any particular meaning; it had no place among what may be called the birthday stones. Now, Alfred's birthday was in October, so she would choose him an opal--yes, a little tie pin of opals with a single diamond like a crystallized tear-drop, and she could say to him, "This opal is to bring you luck in your later years, and the diamond has a meaning which I will tell you at some future time--not now." Then Regina rose up, strong in her new resolve, and, having paid her money at the desk, went out into the summer sunshine. CHAPTER XVIII THE FIRST LITTLE VANITIES