"I'm sorry I have been negligent about the Brys----" she began.
"Oh, as to the Brys--it's you I'm thinking of," said Mrs.Fisher abruptly.

She paused, and then, bending forward, with a lowered voice: "You know we all went on to Nice last night when the Duchess chucked us.
It was Louisa's idea--I told her what I thought of it." Miss Bart assented.

"Yes--I caught sight of you on the way back, at the station." "Well, the man who was in the carriage with you and George Dorset--that horrid little Dabham who does 'Society Notes from the Riviera'-- had been dining with us at Nice.

And he's telling everybody that you and Dorset came back alone after midnight." "Alone--?
When he was with us ?" Lily laughed, but her laugh faded into gravity under the prolonged implication of Mrs.Fisher's look.

"We DID come back alone--if that's so very dreadful! But whose fault was it?
The Duchess was spending the night at Cimiez with the Crown Princess; Bertha got bored with the show, and went off early, promising to meet us at the station.