by Agnes Castle and Egerton Castle

“ Kitty returned her large friend's farewell kiss heartily, but only bestowed a curtesy on Mistress Lafone. The bride paused a second on the threshold to breathe an innocent valediction:
“It will be so vastly clever of your Ladyship if you prevent Lord Kilcroney from going out to-night. We shall all want to know. Sha'n't we, Lady Flora?”
She blinked at Mr. Stafford through her great eyelashes as that gentleman closed the door upon her.
“'Pon my soul,” said he, coming back to Kitty, “'tis as dewy a piece as I've ever seen!” ”

“ Beau Stafford ripped up the note, flicked it open, and went to the light to read. A little breath of attar of roses gushed up at him as he did so.
I hope, sir, you will not think me bold; I am but new in the town and am ill at learning fashionable ways, but there are times when a lady feels sadly in need of a friend. When we met at my Lady Kilcroney's to-day, something whispered to me that I could trust you. ”

“ Stafford? Is not that to be part of the program?”
“Stay,” cried Lady Kilcroney, springing to her feet. She flung out a small imperative hand. “Mistress Lafone's proposal is absurd indeed; I will lend no hand to help a woman lose her character. But there is something, nevertheless, in the suggestion. Ladies!” she looked round upon the expectant circle with commanding eyes, “I have a plan for you which will encompass all your desires. You will make your husbands jealous, aye, and ridiculous! We will cut Beau Stafford's comb for him, and the town shall ring with the joke of it. ”

“ She called after him, “Success to your club, Mr. Stafford!”
“She's plotting mischief,” he said to himself as he closed the door. “Gad, her eyes shot sparks, and if Lady Nan would have scratched me, I vow my Lady Kilcroney would have bitten me with all those little white teeth! The Benedict's Comfort!” he chuckled, as he went down the shallow stairs, pausing on every step. “'Tis the success of the season indeed—Kitty but a few hours back in the town and fit to slay me already! Ah, she's dangerous! I'll drop a word in Denis's ear to keep him up to the mark to-night.” ”

“ Stafford deeply regretted that important business should detain him from the club to-night, and he requested my Lord Kilcroney to be kind enough to take the chair.
“Gentlemen,” said Philip Day, as his companions looked blankly at each other, “this is a farce if it is not an impertinence. I am for home again!”
“And I!” chimed in Lafone hastily.
“Not I!” cried Dare-Stamer. “I smell broiled bones.”
And, “Gad, not without my supper!” confirmed Lord Verney.
“Oh, come, gentlemen,” pleaded Lady Flo's husband then. “We can't part without a bottle between us, at least. Come, I'll do host. ”

“ Aye, and I who used to cry myself sick those first months at Elm Park—”
“The question is,” interrupted Susan irritably, “What's to be done?”
“We must punish our husbands,” said Susan Verney between set teeth.
“What is the best way to punish a husband?” questioned the bride innocently.
“Make him jealous,” suggested Lady Flora.
“Make him ridiculous,” said Nan, with a vindictive flash of her blue eyes.
“Make him both, sweet ladies,” amended Kitty Kilcroney, while a reflective dimple peeped beside her smile. ”

“ Gentlemen seem to like play-actresses so much.”
In the silence which this monstrous pronouncement created, Kitty surveyed the speaker with a glance of majesty. “Speak for your own gentleman, if you please, ma'am; my Lord Kilcroney has the strange taste to prefer the company of his wife to that of any other lady, be she from Sadler's Wells or Half Moon Street. But I'm willing to help you, my dears,” went on their fair hostess.
The door opened upon this remark, and Pompey announced, “Mr. Stafford.” ”

“ But no doubt Kilcroney has informed you of all its stages. 'Tis a prodigious success, Kitty.”
“So I hear, sir—especially among the ladies.”
Mr. Stafford could not help the laughter which had been gathering within him from bubbling gently from his lips. “As you say, Kitty, 'tis especially the ladies that attest to its success. Ha! ha! Lady Verney all but cut me just now! And that little white cat, Lady Anne Day, could scarce keep her claws off me as she went by. ”

“ Do you know 'tis gone of half-past nine? Shall I not bid Lydia have them call your chair?”
“Oh, pshaw!” said he, “'tis early yet, Kitty darling.” He leaned forward. “Five years wed, is it? 'Tis gone like an hour's blissful dream!”
“A dream that sets you snoring, my lord!”
“Ah, now, asthore—Kitty, you've the wickedest dimples in the whole wide world.”
Having finished rolling her bobbin, she cut a length off the ribbon with a knowing little pair of scissors and began to stitch at it.
“Mr. Stafford will be growing impatient,” she remarked. ”

“ I've promised Kilcroney his revenge.'”
“Highty tighty!” cried Kitty, extremely amused, “and what's the to-do about now, and how has my poor Kilcroney become responsible? I can't help it, Julia, if Sir Jasper will gamble, and I never was jealous of the cards, Susan.” ”

“ There was Molly Lafone—little demure wretch, all eyelashes and pursed lips—“mouse,” her lord called her; little cat in Mr. Stafford's opinion forevermore. And, woebegone, scared, the faded prettiness of Lady Standish—the weary piece, if ever woman deserved a Jasper!—and, lud, there was Susan Verney, scarlet behind her rouge, with blazing eyes of fury and triumph!
Again they were jogging in darkness. To the right of him, he knew, sat Lady Flo ”

“ He caught them, found himself drawn inward, fell against billows of silk, was seized on this side and on that; captured and held close; buffeted as by downy wings of monstrous birds; enveloped with suffocating, unknown sweetnesses ”

“ The wise husband is he who gives his wife no opportunities. You should have left her among the haycocks. It had been safer. Why was Mr. S. so anxious to have you at supper to-night? Stay the evening out, perchance you will learn.
He bit his full lip. “'Tis some nonsensical piece of mischief.”
Yet it rankled. He did not treat the letter as he had done his brother-in-law's, but folded it carefully and laid it in his breast pocket.
“Where did Nan and Susan tell us they would pass their time this evening? At Lady Flora's? H'm!” ”