Obscurely, no doubt, she felt that if charm were once admitted as the criterion, smartness and capability must go to the wall; and she hated⁠—with a hatred the deeper that at times this so-called charm seemed to disturb all calculations⁠—the subtle seductiveness which she could not altogether overlook in Irene.

She said, however, that she could see nothing in the woman⁠—there was no “go” about her⁠—she would never be able to stand up for herself⁠—anyone could take advantage of her, that was plain⁠—she could not see in fact what men found to admire!

She was not really ill-natured, but, in maintaining her position after the trying circumstances of her married life, she had found it so necessary to be “full of information,” that the idea of holding her tongue about “those two” in the Park never occurred to her.

And it so happened that she was dining that very evening at Timothy’s, where she went sometimes to “cheer the old things up,” as she was wont to put it. The same people were always asked to meet her: Winifred Dartie and her husband; Francie, because she belonged to the artistic circles, for Mrs. MacAnder was known to contribute articles on dress to The Ladies Kingdom Come , and for her to flirt with, provided they could be obtained, two of the Hayman boys, who, though they never said anything, were believed to be fast and thoroughly intimate with all that was latest in smart Society.