“Suppose we bring Miss Fanshawe to some proof. Give her an opportunity of displaying the power she boasts.”

“I could do that tomorrow. Papa has asked some gentlemen to dinner, all savants. Graham, who, papa is beginning to discover, is a savant, too⁠—skilled, they say, in more than one branch of science⁠—is among the number. Now I should be miserable to sit at table unsupported, amidst such a party. I could not talk to Messieurs A⁠⸺ and Z⁠⸺, the Parisian Academicians: all my new credit for manner would be put in peril. You and Mrs. Bretton must come for my sake; Ginevra, at a word, will join you.”

“Yes; then I will carry a message of invitation, and she shall have the chance of justifying her character for veracity.”