"
"Dear Miss Pinsent, you flatter me!"
Lydia rose and gathered up her book and sunshade.
"Well, if you're asked for an opinion--if Lady Susan asks you for one--I
think you ought to be prepared," Miss Pinsent admonished her as she moved
away.
III
Lady Susan held her own. She ignored the Lintons, and her little family,
as Miss Pinsent phrased it, followed suit. Even Mrs. Ainger agreed that it
was obligatory. If Lady Susan owed it to the others not to speak to the
Lintons, the others clearly owed it to Lady Susan to back her up. It was
generally found expedient, at the Hotel Bellosguardo, to adopt this form
of reasoning.
Whatever effect this combined action may have had upon the Lintons, it did
not at least have that of driving them away. Monsieur Grossart, after a
few days of suspense, had the satisfaction of seeing them settle down in
his yellow damask _premier_ with what looked like a permanent installation
of palm-trees and silk sofa-cushions, and a gratifying continuance in the
consumption of champagne. Mrs. Linton trailed her Doucet draperies up and
down the garden with the same challenging air, while her husband, smoking
innumerable cigarettes, dragged himself dejectedly in her wake; but
neither of them, after the first encounter with Lady Susan, made any
attempt to extend their acquaintance. They simply ignored their ignorers.
As Miss Pinsent resentfully observed, they behaved exactly as though the
hotel were empty.
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