Gertrude took off her bonnet, and left the room without speaking.

“This is my revenge upon you for marrying Brandon,” he said then, approaching Jane.

“Oh, yes,” she retorted ironically.  “I believe all that, of course.”

“You have the same security for its truth as for that of all the foolish things I confess to you.  There!” He pointed to a panel of looking glass, in which Jane’s figure was reflected at full length.

“I don’t see anything to admire,” said Jane, looking at herself with no great favor.  “There is plenty of me, if you admire that.”

“It is impossible to have too much of a good thing.  But I must not look any more.  Though Agatha says she does not love me, I am not sure that she would be pleased if I were to look for love from anyone else.”

“Says she does not love you!  Don’t believe her; she has taken trouble enough to catch you.”

“I am flattered.  You caught me without any trouble, and yet you would not have me.”

“It is manners to wait to be asked.  I think you have treated Gertrude shamefully—­I hope you won’t be offended with me for saying so.  I blame Agatha most.  She is an awfully double-faced girl.”

“How so?” said Trefusis, surprised.  “What has Miss Lindsay to do with it?”

“You know very well.”

“I assure you I do not.  If you were speaking of yourself I could understand you.”

“Oh, you can get out of it cleverly, like all men; but you can’t hoodwink me.  You shouldn’t have pretended to like Gertrude when you were really pulling a cord with Agatha.  And she, too, pretending to flirt with Sir Charles—­as if he would care twopence for her!”

Trefusis seemed N little disturbed.  “I hope Miss Lindsay had no such—­but she could not.”

“Oh, couldn’t she?  You will soon see whether she had or not.”

“You misunderstood us, Lady Brandon; Miss Lindsay knows better.  Remember, too, that this proposal of mine was quite unpremeditated.  This morning I had no tender thoughts of anyone except one whom it would be improper to name.”

“Oh, that is all talk.  It won’t do now.”

“I will talk no more at present.  I must be off to the village to telegraph to my solicitor.  If I meet Erskine I will tell him the good news.”

“He will be delighted.  He thought, as we all did, that you were cutting him out with Gertrude.”

Trefusis smiled, shook his head, and, with a glance of admiring homage to Jane’s charms, went out.  Jane was contemplating herself in the glass when a servant begged her to come and speak to Master Charles and Miss Fanny.  She hurried upstairs to the nursery, where her boy and girl, disputing each other’s prior right to torture the baby, had come to blows.  They were somewhat frightened, but not at all appeased, by Jane’s entrance.  She scolded, coaxed, threatened, bribed, quoted Dr. Watts, appealed to the nurse and then insulted her, demanded of the children