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 at those violet eyes of hers! But then, of course, Victoria must have been exasperated.'

"'I can assure you Victoria is very generally blamed,' said Gerome. 'Miss Ford was very ill immediately after the affair, and every one says it was brain fever, brought on by Miss Claudel's refusal to see her. She left for Europe quite broken in health, and this is her first appearance since her return. Town Topics had it last week that her engagement was rumored to young Lord Pelham—'

"'Dopey Pelham!' exclaimed Lady Kilgare, 'impossible! He is a little, bald-headed, dried-up rat of a man, with a stutter, you know, and the worst manners. To be sure he has the title and a sweetly pretty country house with no end of gee-gees, and the old place in Devonshire, but he's—dear me—quite the simpleton! "'Has that Trevey-Portman woman gone? Am I safe if I turn my face toward the table? Yes? Ah, that's better. Why, there's Celia van Cordlier—I must speak with her!' and with that she dismissed Miss Ford and her affairs from her aristocratic mind." 318