In  the  first  place,  as  she  frankly  admitted,  the  Marquis
had  spoiled  her.  She  had  to  confess  that  he  had  proved

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THE  TIME  SPIRIT


sadly  lacking  in  backbone  when  brought  to  the  test,  but
his  sternest  critics  could  not  deny  that  "before  every-
thing he  was  a  gentleman."

Mrs.  Wren  ascribed  her  own  pure  taste  in  manhood
to  the  fact  that  she  had  begun  her  career  in  the  legitimate
drama  under  the  aegis  of  Mr.  Painswick  at  the  Theater
Royal,  Edinburgh.  He,  too,  had  been  before  everything
a  gentleman.  Mr.  Painswick  had  shaped  Lydia  Mifflin,
as  she  was  then,  in  his  own  inimitable  mold.  Upon  a
day  she  was  to  play  Grace  to  his  Digby  Grant  in  "The
Two  Roses."  Then  it  was,  as  she  had  always  felt,  that
she  had  touched  her  high-water  mark;  and  the  signal
occasion  was  ever  afterwards  a  beacon  in  her  life.  From
that  bright  hour  the  Mr.  Painswick  standard  had  regu-
lated the  fair  Lydia's  survey  of  the  human  male.  Even
the  late  lamented  Mr.  H.  Blandish  Wren,  who  was  with-
out a  peer  in  "straight"  comedy,  whose  Steggles  in  "Lon-
don Assurance"  had  never  been  surpassed,  even  that  pala-
din  .  Still  it  isn't  quite  fair  to  give  away  State

secrets !

Mrs.  Wren  had  once  said  of  Charles  Cheesewright
"that  he  was  not  out  of  the  top  drawer."  However,  if
he  was  not  of  the  caste  of  Vere  de  Vere  she  had  to  own
that  "he  had  points."  He  was  one  of  those  young  men
who  mean  more  than  they  say,  who  do  better  than  they
promise,  who  clothe  their  thoughts  with  actions  rather
than  words.  Also,  he  had  two  motors — a  Daimler  and
a  Rolls-Royce,  he  had  rooms  in  the  Albany,  and  though
perhaps  just  a  little  inclined  to  overdress,  he  had  such
a  sure  taste  in  jewelry  that  he  took  his  financee  once  a
week  to  Cartier's.  And  beyond  everything  else,  he  had

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ARDORS  AND  ENDURANCES

the  supreme  advantage  over  my  lord  that  he  knew  his
own  mind  pretty  clearly.
