very earliest opportunity, and that, on the whole, she was
not discouraged. Mothers are often unaware of their daughters' strong
points, but their weaknesses they may be trusted to understand pretty
well.

The little scene was just well over, and Adela had taken a seat by the
window, when a gentleman who was approaching the front door saw her and
raised his hat. She went very pale.

The next moment there was a knock at the front door.

'Mother,' the girl whispered, as if she could not speak louder, 'it is
Mr. Eldon.'

'Mr. Eldon?' Mrs. Waltham drew herself up with dignity, then started
from her seat. 'The idea of his daring to come here!'

She intercepted the servant who was going to open the door.

'Jane, we are not at home!'

The maid stood in astonishment. She was not used to the polite fictions
of society; never before had that welcome mortal, an afternoon visitor,
been refused at Mrs. Waltham's.

'What did you say, please, mum?'

'You will say that we are not at home, neither I nor Miss Waltham.'

Even if Hubert Eldon had not seen Adela at the window he must have been
dull not to read the meaning of the servant's singular face and tone. He
walked away with a quiet 'Thank you.'

Mrs. Waltham cast a side glance at Adela when she heard the outer door
close. The girl had reopened her book.

'I'm not sorry that he came. Was there ever such astonishing impudence?
If _that_ is gentlemanly, then I must confess I--Really I am not at all
sorry he came: it will give him a lesson.'

'Mr. Eldon may have had some special reason for calling,' Adela remarked
disinterestedly.

'My dear, I have no business of any kind with Mr. Eldon, and it is
impossible that he can have any with me.'

Adela very shortly went from the room.

That evening Richard had for guest at dinner Mr. Willis Rodman; so that
gentleman named himself on his cards, and so he liked to be announced.
Mr. Rodman was invaluable as surveyor of the works; his experience
appeared boundless, and had been acquired in many lands. He was now a
Socialist of the purest water, and already he enjoyed more of Mutimer's
intimacy than anyone else. Richard not seldom envied the easy and, as
it seemed to him, polished manner of his subordinate, and wondered at it
the more since Rodman declared himself a proletarian by birth, and, in
private, was fond of referring to the hardships of his early life.
That there may be no needless mystery about Mr. Rodman, I am under