'
'How the men stare at you, Elfride!' said the elder lady. 'You
will kill me quite, I am afraid.'
'Kill you?'
'As a diamond kills an opal in the same setting.'
'I have noticed several ladies and gentlemen looking at me,' said
Elfride artlessly, showing her pleasure at being observed.
'My dear, you mustn't say "gentlemen" nowadays,' her stepmother
answered in the tones of arch concern that so well became her
ugliness. 'We have handed over "gentlemen" to the lower middle
class, where the word is still to be heard at tradesmen's balls
and provincial tea-parties, I believe. It is done with here.'
'What must I say, then?'
'"Ladies and MEN" always.'
At this moment appeared in the stream of vehicles moving in the
contrary direction a chariot presenting in its general surface the
rich indigo hue of a midnight sky, the wheels and margins being
picked out in delicate lines of ultramarine; the servants'
liveries were dark-blue coats and silver lace, and breeches of
neutral Indian red. The whole concern formed an organic whole,
and moved along behind a pair of dark chestnut geldings, who
advanced in an indifferently zealous trot, very daintily
performed, and occasionally shrugged divers points of their veiny
surface as if they were rather above the business.
In this sat a gentleman with no decided characteristics more than
that he somewhat resembled a good-natured commercial traveller of
the superior class.
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