"He expects everything except docility," said Penborough; "if the Opposition employ that means, they will embarrass all his calculations."
Reckage, meanwhile, was confiding to Sara--
"I turned the horse round, rammed my spurs in, and put him at the rails again!"
One statement, made by Penborough, caused a flutter.
"If Catherine of Arragon had been immoral and Mary Stuart virtuous, the whole course of European History would have been different. The Reformation, for instance, would have found no favour in England."
"That's _very_ advanced," murmured Lady Larch.
Sara, at dessert, tried to encourage a debate on the egoism of the Saints compared with the egoism of Montaigne.
"They were selfishly bent on pain and renunciation, he was selfishly bent on pleasure and indulgence. Isn't that the one difference between them, Mr. Orange?"
Orange refused to be drawn, but he promised to lend her the _Acta Sanctorum_ of the Bollandists in sixty volumes in folio.
"After you have read them," said he, "I will tell you my ideas about Montaigne."
Many other remarks were probably more amusing; these, however, were the most characteristic.
When dinner was ended, Sara and the two ladies withdrew to the drawing-room, where they discussed with the utmost vehemence Orange's illegal marriage and Reckage's broken engagement.
The sum and substance of their investigations were as follows:--
Lady Larch wondered what the world was coming to.
Lady Augusta declared that no woman yet ever fathomed the heart of man.
Lady Sara maintained that it was a very good thing for both young men to have had such reverses before they finally settled down.
At this Lady Augusta forgot to sigh, and Lady Larch lost control of her smile.
"How," exclaimed Augusta, "can they forget so soon? Can any settling down be in contemplation? Are no deep, sacred feelings left?"
Emmeline Larch, who was a widow, said she would never be hard on any one who tried to recover, for the sake of others, from a shattering bereavement.
The three women formed a picturesque group round the fireplace as the men entered. But the card-tables were already placed, and Sara lost no time in arranging a quartette for whist. Penborough had to leave for the _Times_ office. Pole-Knox had to hurry back to Fulham. The young lady, who was known to detest all games, was thus able to choose Robert for her partner in a short conversation.