'I am tired of it,' said Mrs. Chadwick, not perceiving the least sarcasm in her friend's tone; 'and the result is certainly enough to make me give up any farther attempt. Mr. Pratt was, as I have said before, exactly the man to suit Eleanor; but if she intends to do with others as she has done with him, and when she finds a man perfectly devoted to her she won't marry him, but will go in for making a tame cat of him, she deserves to lose any chance of settling herself.' With all this, and very much more, Mrs. Chadwick went prosing on, Mrs. Hamblin from time to time throwing in an interjectional remark which incited her companion to continue, though it had no value or meaning in itself; for indeed her thoughts were very far away from the worthy woman, whose monotonous voice, like the dropping of water, kept ceaselessly falling on her ear. To her jealous mind the introduction of Lady Forestfield among the persons of the drama acted as a shock; for Mrs. Hamblin believed in neither virtue, nor repentance, nor honesty in friendship. Lady Forestfield had 'gone wrong' once, and there was every reason to suppose would do so again. What more likely than that she should adopt Spiridion Pratt as a lover? He was weak minded, as Mrs. Hamblin well knew, ridiculously romantic, could easily be persuaded into accepting the position of champion to beauty in distress, and would feel infinitely flattered at its being known that he had been selected by a woman of Lady Forestfield's rank to do battle for her with the world. However much she had endeavoured to persuade herself to the contrary, Mrs. Hamblin in her secret heart had never given up the intention of bringing Spiridion back to his allegiance to her, and she saw at once that any _mésalliance_ such as that the possibility of which she was then contemplating would bring entire destruction upon her hopes. She could have looked on at his marriage with a quiet simple girl like Eleanor Irvine with comparative equanimity; men, as Mrs. Hamblin knew from experience, and more especially men of Spiridion Pratt's disposition, very soon tired of innocence, and it was probable, or at all events possible, that when the charm of domesticity began to wane she might without much trouble, had she been so disposed, have regained her old lover. And now all this has been knocked on the head. Spiridion had kept away from her, and so she had been left unacquainted with all that was going on. What she felt most acutely was that Spiridion had so completely ignored her. If she had had the least inkling of his intention to propose to Miss Irvine, even if, after he had proposed and had been rejected, he had come to her and taken her into his confidence, she could have prevented this horrible introduction to Lady Forestfield, and all that would probably ensue from it.