I've told you already more than I ever said to any one else; but then you are so intimate with Mr.
Carrington, that I always think of you as an old friend." Thus Mrs.Baker rippled on, while Mrs.Lee listened with more and more doubt and disgust.

The woman was showy, handsome in a coarse style, and perfectly presentable.

Mrs.Lee had seen Duchesses as vulgar.

She knew more about the practical working of government than Mrs.Lee could ever expect or hope to know.

Why then draw back from this interesting lobbyist with such babyish repulsion?
When, after a long, and, as she declared, a most charming call, Mrs.
Baker wended her way elsewhere and Madeleine had given the strictest order that she should never be admitted again, Carrington entered, and Madeleine showed him Mrs.Baker's card and gave a lively account of the interview.
"What shall I do with the woman ?" she asked; "must I return her card ?" But Carrington declined to offer advice on this interesting point.