dropped off one by one to the billiard-room, till Mrs.
Ormonde and De Burgh found themselves _tete-a-tete_.

"Do you wear black every night because it suits you down to the ground?"
he asked, after very deliberately examining her from head to foot, when
he had thrown down a newspaper he had been scanning.

"No; I am in mourning. Don't you see I have only black lace and jet, and
a little crape?"

"Ah! and that constitutes mourning, eh? Well, there is very little
mourning in your laughing eyes. Who is dead?"

"My mother-in-law."

"Your mother-in-law! I didn't know Ormonde----"

"I mean Mrs. Liddell; and I am quite sorry for her; she was wonderfully
fond of me, and very kind."

"Why, what an angel you must be to fascinate a _belle-mere_! Then the
dear departed must be the mother of that Miss Liddell whom Ormonde was
recommending to me this afternoon?"

"Who--my husband? How silly! She would not suit you a bit."

"Well, Ormonde thought her fortune might."

"Oh, her fortune! that is another thing. But she will not be so very
rich if she fulfils her promise to settle part of her fortune on my
boys. You see, if their poor father had lived, he would have shared
their uncle's money with his sister. Now it is too hideously unjust that
my poor dear boys should have nothing, and Katherine is very properly
going to make it up to them."

"A young woman with a very high sense of justice. A good deal under the
influence of her charming sister-in-law, I presume."

"Well, rather," returned Mrs. Ormonde, with an air of superiority.
"Katherine is a mere enthusiastic school-girl, easily imposed upon. Both
Colonel Ormonde and myself feel bound to look after her."

"Will she let you?" asked De Burgh, dryly.

"Of course she will. She knows nothing of the world, or at least very
little, for she did not go much into society while they were abroad."

"Has she been abroad?"

"Yes; Mrs. Liddell was out of health when Katherine came into this
money, and they have been away in Italy and Germany and Paris for quite
two years. They were on their way home when Mrs. Liddell was taken ill.
She died in Paris, of typhoid fever, just before Christmas."

"Two years in Italy, Germany, and Paris," repeated De Burgh; "she can't
be quite a novice, then."

"Oh, she thinks she knows a great deal; and she _is_ a nice girl, though
curious and fanciful. I like her very much indeed, but I do not fancy
_you_ would. She is certainly obstinate. Inst