Singularly enough, Judith alone was faithful found among the
faithless. She declared that Larry had been brutally and idiotically
treated, and that this engagement was the result, and justified all
that she had been saying for many past ages. When Larry appeared at
the Meet, his scalp-lock prominent among Miss Mangan's furs, Judith
alone of his former intimates met him with cordiality, condoled with
him over his election defeat with sympathy, and congratulated him on
his engagement with decorum.
"I felt it was only decent," she said later, to the friend to whom she
complacently recounted her effort, "after he had been kicked
downstairs by Papa, and booted out of the house by Christian, quite
without justification. I congratulated him warmly! I absolutely rode
up to the gorgeous Tishy and said civil things there too!"
"It was perfectly angelic of you!" said the friend.
"Quite the reverse, my dear!" said Judith, proudly. "But you see Bill
has the hounds, and anyhow, I like to prepare for all contingencies!"
For the rest, a chilly neutrality reigned at the Meet. Larry was
finding his official position of captive decidedly irksome. He wished
that Tishy would not call him by his name every time she spoke to him;
that she would not speak so loud; that this eternal jog to the covert
would end before the Day of Judgment; finally, that he had stayed at
home.
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