The mess had yielded to the last man.
"I call it almost brazen," she said to Mrs.Burton, the Major's wife.
"She flaunts her unconventionality in our faces." "A grave mistake," agreed Mrs.Burton.

"It will not make us think any the more highly of her when she is married." "I am in two minds about calling on her," declared Lady Harriet.

"I am very doubtful as to the advisability of inviting any one so obviously unsuitable into our inner circle.

Of course Mrs.Ralston," she raised her long pointed chin upon the name, "will please herself in the matter.
She will probably be the first to try and draw her in, but what Mrs.
Ralston does and what I do are two very different things.

She is not particular as to the society she keeps, and the result is that her opinion is very justly regarded as worthless." "Oh, quite," agreed Mrs.Burton, sending an obviously false smile in the direction of the lady last named who was approaching them in the company of Mrs.Ermsted, the Adjutant's wife, a little smart woman whom Tommy had long since surnamed "The Lizard." Mrs.Ralston, the surgeon's wife, had once been a pretty girl, and there were occasions still on which her prettiness lingered like the gleams of a fading sunset.