"Never mind; it is misery I would not be without. Tell me, how is Major Semberry?" "Good gracious, Lord Aldean, how should I know? I have not seen him for years." "'Tis to be hoped that you will not again come into contact with Major Semberry," said Mrs. Purcell, wagging her turban; "he is not a suitable acquaintance for a young lady." "No, I am quite sure he is not," assented Aldean; upon which Tui at once took up arms on behalf of the absent. "Major Semberry is the most charming of men," she declared, with a pout. "The serpent," rebuked Mrs. Purcell, "is ever beautiful to the eye but unfortunately is possessed of noxious qualities which far exceed his beauty. Rubina, in my letter to you I think I stated my opinion of Major Semberry. From that opinion I have seen no reason to depart." "In plain English, Mrs. Purcell, you consider Semberry a rascal?" "Mr. Mallow, I consider him a profligate and an undesirable acquaintance. How Dr. Carson came to entrust his son to such a man I cannot understand." "They got on very well together." "Then the one or the other must have changed very much, Lord Aldean. In Bombay, Mr. Carson was by no means friendly with his travelling companion. His rigid sense of right and wrong did not allow him to countenance Major Semberry's laxity of principle." "You like Mr. Carson?" asked Mallow, quickly. "My acquaintance with him was not of sufficient duration to enable me to speak quite so definitely as that, but I consider Mr. Carson to be an admirably conducted young man, calculated to render any woman happy in the matrimonial state." "Oh, lor!" muttered Jim; "how he must have altered!" "Well," said Tui, outright, "I don't like Mr. Carson at all. I never did." "You surprise me," said Mrs. Purcell, in her most majestic manner. "My judgment is seldom at fault, and I considered Mr. Carson, when I saw him in Bombay, to be the type of all that is most excellent in the male sex." The discussion had not the remotest interest for Miss Slarge. Indeed, she had already drifted back to Babylon. Observing vaguely that the great red dragon of Revelations was the fiery serpent of Chaldean worship, she left the room to return to her beloved studies, and Mrs. Purcell was left with her three guests. Lord Aldean was carried off by Tui to a distant corner where she could torment him without fear of interruption, and Mallow at once seized the opportunity for a talk with his hostess about Olive. It took all Mrs. Purcell's philosophy to hear unmoved his tale of Carson's treachery. "Mrs. Purcell," said Mallow, plunging at once _in medias res_, "you are aware that I have known Mrs. Carson for many years, and that I take a deep interest in her welfare. I am sorry to tell you that she is very unhappy in her marriage." "Did she inform you of this fact?" said Mrs. Purcell, with some displeasure.