Page:The Rejuvenation Of Miss Semaphore.pdf/17

 impress her hearers, "I can assure you that in diplomatic circles, a lady shopping without an escort, or at any rate without a maid, is unheard of."

In every boarding-house throughout the British Islands there is to be found a person who is the intimate friend of the Prince of Wales. At 37, Beaconsfield Gardens, Mrs. Dumaresq was that person.

"Yes, all very well amongst a lot of horrid foreigners," said Mr. Lorimer obstinately; "no wonder ladies are afraid to go about alone where there's a set of ugly, unwashed rascals that would run a dagger into them as soon as look at them, but grown-up English-*women in their own country may do what they please."

"I do not approve of ladies going anywhere alone. It may do for middle-class persons," said Mrs. Dumaresq haughtily, "but I can assure you, from personal knowledge, that it is not done in diplomatic circles. When we lived at Belgrade, there was a Mrs. Twickenham who used to act in the most unconventional way, and one day the Princess—a dear old friend of ours—the Princess Hatzoff—you must have heard of her, first cousin to the Czar, a delightful