"What is the name of that girl who was here on the afternoon the two South Americans called, and helped to pull us out of the hole?" "Miss Armytage," replied Mrs. Vereker. "She struck me as rather an unusual sort of a girl." Mrs. Vereker, with her usual capacity for misunderstanding Lord Baudesert’s meaning, replied faintly: "Oh, yes, very unusual! She is from a little town called Bardville in Tennessee, or is it Indiana? I forget which. Of course she would not do at all, and we never thought of suggesting her." "Put down Miss Armytage," snapped Lord Baudesert. The comedy suddenly became a tragedy to Sir Percy Carlyon. So, then, Alicia Vernon and Lucy Armytage were to be brought face to face after all--and it filled him with a dumb rage. Isabella, meaning to conciliate her uncle, murmured: "A lovely girl, Miss Armytage, so intelligent, so interesting!" "A provincial, if ever I saw one," was Lord Baudesert’s response to this. "Nevertheless she has some beauty and a pretty voice, and we will have her." When Lord Baudesert had retired to his library Mrs. Vereker and the three girls talked in subdued tones for fear the ogre might hear them. They mournfully agreed there must be something between Lord Baudesert and Mrs. Chantrey, and Sir Percy was appealed to for his opinion. "Lord Baudesert wouldn’t marry Helen of Troy if she had all the virtues of St. Monica and John D. Rockefeller’s wealth into the bargain," was Sir Percy’s consoling answer. "He simply talks about Mrs. Chantrey to worry you. I wish them both joy if they get each other, but there isn’t the shadow of danger." Mrs. Vereker, however, refused to be comforted. "And what a surprise that he should have gone out of his way to ask Miss Armytage, whom he frankly called a provincial! Surely, in the language of the hymn, it might be said of Lord Baudesert, ’He moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform.’" Sir Percy had promised to stay all the evening, but he broke his promise and left early. He began to believe that Fate, and not he, would settle when and how Lucy Armytage would hear the painful story of his youth.