on that followed the ball Lady Adela took Rachel to tea
with Lord Richard.

It was a superb May afternoon; white clouds, bolster-shaped, were piled
in the heavens and made, so rounded were they, the blue sky seem an
infinite distance away. It was a day of sparkling dazzling gaiety--the
air seemed electric with the happiness of the world, and, as they drove
down to Grosvenor Street, Rachel felt that the little breeze that just
touched the hats and coats of the people on the omnibuses was created
simply by the joy of the beautiful weather.

As they moved slowly down Bond Street Rachel looked at the world and
thought of last night. She looked at the men with their shining hats and
shining boots; at the messenger boys and the young women with parcels
and the young women without; at the old men who thought themselves young
and the young men who thought themselves old; at the fish shops and the
picture galleries, at the jewellers' and the book shops, at the place
where they taught you Swedish exercises and the place where there was a
palmist with a Japanese name, and it was all splendid and magnificent
and simply carried on the glories of the night before. Before the
turning into Grosvenor Street there was a great crush of carriages and a
long pause. In the carriage next to Rachel there was a very stout, very
richly coloured lady with a strong scent and a pug dog. A little farther
away there were two young gentlemen in a smart little carriage, and
their hats were so large and their expression so haughty and the top of
their canes so golden that it seemed absurd that they should have to
wait for anybody, and near them was a small boy on a little butcher's
cart and near him an omnibus with a red-faced driver and any number of
interested ladies, and all these incongruities seemed only to add to the
haphazard happiness of this shining afternoon.

Rachel had many things to consider as she sat there. Aunt Adela did not
interfere with her thoughts, because she never talked when she was in a
carriage, but always sat up and looked wearily at the people about her.
She had never very much to say, but the open air made her feel stupid.

Rachel was aware that last night had altered her point of view for all
time. She was aware, as she sat there in sunshine, of a new world. By
one glance at Aunt Adela was this new world made apparent. Aunt Adela
had hitherto been important--Aunt Adela was now unimportant.

Had this afternoon been wet a