“I don’t believe it!” declared Selina, trembling with indignation. “No, and I wonder that George should repeat such—such steward’s room gossip! Not the thing,indeed! I consider him most truly the gentleman, and of the first respectability, and so does everyone else in Bath!”

“Oh, Selina, what a bouncer! You know very well that Lady Trevisian didn’t hold him in high esteem. Indeed, she told Mary that she had warned you, just before she left Bath, that you would be wise to hint Calverleigh away. That was how George came to know about the business.”

Much flushed, Selina said: “I wonder that she could think of nothing better to do than to go tattle mongering all over London! Making a mountain out of a molehill, too, as I very soon discovered—not that I mean to say that it was not very wrong of Fanny, and I assure you I told her so—and all because she saw Fanny walking with him in the Sydney Gardens, quite by accident—meeting him, I mean, and Betty with her, of course—at least, she was then—so I gave Fanny a severe scold, and told her how shocking it would be if people thought she was fast. Yes, and I said that I was surprised at Mr Calverleigh, which I collect she must have told him, because he paid me a morning visit the very next day, to beg pardon, and to explain to me that this was the first time he had ever been to Bath, which accounted for his not knowing that it was quite improper for a young female of breeding to wander round the gardens—to say nothing of the labyrinth!—without the vestige of a chaperon, not even her maid, because Fanny had sent Betty home, which was very naughty of her—most thoughtless, only she is such a child still that I’m persuaded she had no notion—and he,I promise you, felt it just as he ought!”