Page:The Sins of the Cities of the Plain.djvu/152

 Lord Arthur had another engagement, which prevented him coming with us, and so I went with them.

They had a private brougham in waiting, which took us to Grosvenor Square.

A. very sedate and elderly footman ushered us upstairs to a dressing-room, which formed part of the Earl's own special apartments, a suite of six or seven rooms, rigorously set apart from the rest of the house, where none but his confidential servants and pages were ever allowed to enter.

At the time of our visit the Countess was out of town at Scarborough, assiduously carrying on an anything but innocent flirtation with a certain young Marquis; but the Earl, her husband, cared not a fig for that, so long as he enjoyed himself in his own way.