At these dinners she encountered famous men and women, and looked at them from afar off with wistful interest.

In the drawing-room afterwards she saw Lady Agatha the centre of a brilliant group.

Someone said of her that she was likely to be the spoilt child of politics, since she could be audacious with even the greatest, and move them to speak when no one else could.

The great men shook their heads at her and smiled.

They warned her that she went too fast for them, that impulsiveness, charming as it was in a woman, was not to be permitted in politics.