Smithson's description of the lady was correct, and, this being so, she
supposed that the facts and traits of character which he told her about
in other people were also true. She thus adopted the Smithsonian, or
fashionable-pessimist view of society in general, and resigned herself
to the idea that the world was a very wicked world, as well as a very
pleasant world, that the wickedest people were generally the
pleasantest, and that it did not much matter.
The fact that Mr. Smithson was at Lesbia Haselden's feet was obvious to
everybody.
Lesbia, who had at first treated him with supreme hauteur, had grown
more civil as she began to understand the place he held in the world,
and how much social influence goes along with unlimited wealth. She was
civil, but she had quite made up her mind that nothing could ever induce
her to become Horace Smithson's wife. That offer which had hung fire in
the case of poor Belle Trinder, was not too long delayed on this
occasion. Mr. Smithson called in Arlington Street about ten days after
the breakfast in Park Lane, before luncheon, and before Lady Kirkbank
had left her room.
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