oughed his way and that of Lady Mabella in the direction they were
aiming at, he drew near to Mrs. Pine-Avon, who was drinking a cup of tea
in the back drawing-room.

'My dear Nichola, we thought we should never get to you, because it is
worse to-night, owing to these dreadful politics! But we've done it.'
And she proceeded to tell her friend of Pierston's existence hard by.

It seemed that the widow really did wish to know him, and that
Lady Mabella Buttermead had not indulged in one of the too frequent
inventions in that kind. When the youngest of the trio had made the pair
acquainted with each other she left them to talk to a younger man than
the sculptor.

Mrs. Pine-Avon's black velvets and silks, with their white
accompaniments, finely set off the exceeding fairness of her neck and
shoulders, which, though unwhitened artificially, were without a speck
or blemish of the least degree. The gentle, thoughtful creature she had
looked from a distance she now proved herself to be; she held also sound
rather than current opinions on the plastic arts, and was the first
intellectual woman he had seen there that night, except one or two as
aforesaid.

They soon became well acquainted, and at a pause in their conversation
noticed the fresh excitement caused by the arrival of some late comers
with more news. The latter had been brought by a rippling, bright-eyed
lady in black, who made the men listen to her, whether they would or no.

'I am glad I am an outsider,' said Jocelyn's acquaintance, now seated on
a sofa beside which he was standing. 'I wouldn't be like my cousin, over
there, for the world. She thinks her husband will be turned out at the
next election, and she's quite wild.'

'Yes; it is mostly the women who are the gamesters; the men only the
cards. The pity is that politics are looked on as being a game for
politicians, just as cricket is a game for cricketers; not as the
serious duties of political trustees.'

'How few of us ever think or feel that "the nation of every country
dwells in the cottage," as somebody says!'

'Yes. Though I wonder to hear you quote that.'

'O--I am of no party, though my relations are. There can be only
one best course at all times, and the wisdom of the nation should be
directed to finding it, instead of zigzagging in two courses, according
to the will of the party which happens to have the upper hand.'

Having started thus, they found no difficulty in agreeing on many
point