Julia was right in fancying that she saw Lady Dunborough's face at one

of the windows in the south-east corner of the house. Those windows

commanded both the Marlborough High Street and the Salisbury road,

welcomed alike the London and the Salisbury coach, overlooked the

loungers at the entrance to the town, and supervised most details of the

incoming and outgoing worlds. Lady Dunborough had not been up and about

half-an-hour before she remarked these advantages. In an hour her

ladyship was installed in that suite, which, though in the east wing,

was commonly reckoned to be one of the best in the house. Heaven knows

how she did it.

There is a pertinacity, shameless and violent, which

gains its ends, be the crowd between never so dense. It is possible that

Mr. Smith would have ousted her had he dared. It is possible he had to

pay forfeit to the rightful tenants, and in private cursed her for an

old jade and a brimstone. But when a viscountess sits herself down in

the middle of a room and declines to budge, she cannot with decency be

taken up like a sack of hops and dumped in the passage.

Her ladyship, therefore, won, and had the pleasure of viewing from the

coveted window the scene between Julia and Sir George; a scene which

gave her the profoundest satisfaction. What she could not see--her eyes

were no longer all that they had been--she imagined. In five minutes

she had torn up the last rag of the girl's character, and proved her as

bad as the worst woman that ever rode down Cheapside in a cart. Lady

Dunborough was not mealy-mouthed, nor one of those who mince matters.

'What did I tell you?' she cried. 'She will be on with that stuck-up

before night, and be gone with morning. If Dunborough comes back he may

whistle for her!' Mr. Thomasson did not doubt that her ladyship was right. But he spoke

with indifferent spirit. He had had a bad night, had lain anywhere, and

dressed nowhere, and was chilly and unkempt. Apart from the awe in which

he stood of her ladyship, he would have returned to Oxford by the first

coach that morning.

'Dear me!' Lady Dunborough announced presently. 'I declare he is leaving

her! Lord, how the slut ogles him! She is a shameless baggage if ever

there was one; and ruddled to the eyes, as I can see from here. I hope

the white may kill her! Well, I'll be bound it won't be long before he

is to her again! My fine gentleman is like the rest of them--a damned

impudent fellow!' Mr. Thomasson turned up his eyes. 'There was something a little

odd--does not your lady think so?'--he ventured to say, 'in her taking

possession of Sir George's rooms as she did.' 'Did I not say so? Did I not say that very thing?' 'It seems to prove an understanding between them before they met here

last night.' 'I'll take my oath on it!' her ladyship cried with energy. Then in a

tone of exultation she continued, 'Ah! here he is again, as I thought!

And come round by the street to mask the matter! He has down beside her

again. Oh, he is limed, he is limed!' my lady continued, as she searched

for her spying-glass, that she might miss no wit of the love-making.




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