to him, and there's talk of a 'Ladies' League of Protest'—all of which keeps up the pitch."
"Poor Amy and I are a ladies' league," the girl joylessly joked—"as we now take in the 'Journal' regardless of expense."
"Oh then you practically have it all—since," Hugh added after a brief hesitation, "I suppose Lord Theign himself doesn't languish uninformed."
"At far-off Salsomaggiore—by the papers? No doubt indeed he isn't spared even the worst," said Lady Grace—"and no doubt too it's a drag on his cure."
Her companion seemed struck with her lack of assurance. "Then you don't—if I may ask—hear from him?"
"I? Never a word."
"He doesn't write?" Hugh allowed himself to insist.
"He doesn't write. And I don't write either."
"And Lady Sandgate?" Hugh once more ventured.
"Doesn't she write?"
"Doesn't she hear?" said the young man,
