" I am almost ashamed to answer,' she said. 'As I have said before, Emily Fox-Seton has become the lodestar of my existence. I cannot live without her. She has walked over to Maundell to make sure that we do not have a dinner-party without fish to-night.' 'She has _walked_ over to Maundell,' said Lord Walderhurst--'after yesterday?' 'There was not a pair of wheels left in the stable,' answered Lady Maria. 'It is disgraceful, of course, but she is a splendid walker, and she said she was not too tired to do it. It is the kind of thing she ought to be given the Victoria Cross for--saving one from a dinner-party without fish.' The Marquis of Walderhurst took up the cord of his monocle and fixed the glass rigidly in his eye. 'It is not only four miles to Maundell,' he remarked, staring at the table-cloth, not at Lady Maria, 'but it is four miles back. "