ks of lovely shimmering hue and delightfully
soft texture which would serve for any such festivity.

"Though in _my_ day," said Lady Alice, smiling, "we did not go to balls
in Bloomsbury. But, of course, I don't know what society Mr. Brooke sees
now."

Lesley was conscious of the sarcasm.

The earl remained in Paris, while Lady Alice went with her daughter from
Havre to Southampton, and thence to London. Dayman travelled with them;
and a supplementary escort appeared in the person of Captain Duchesne,
who "happened to be travelling that way." Lady Alice was not displeased
to see him, although she had a guilty sense of stealing a march upon her
husband in providing Lesley with a standard of youthful good-breeding
and good-looks. It might tend to preserve her from forming any silly
attachment in her father's circle, Lady Alice thought. As a matter of
fact, she was singularly ignorant of what that circle might comprise.
She had left him before his more prosperous days began to dawn, and she
continued therefore to picture him to herself as the struggling
journalist in murky lodgings--"the melancholy literary man" who smoked
strong tobacco far into the night, and talked of things in which she had
no interest at all. If matters were changed with Caspar Brooke since
then, Lady Alice did not know it.

She had ascertained that Mr. Brooke's sister was living in his house,
and that she was capable of acting in some sort as Lesley's chaperon.
Then, a connection of the earl's was rector of a neighboring church
close to Upper Woburn Place--and he had promised to take Miss Brooke
under his especial pastoral care;--although, as he mildly insinuated, he
was not in the habit of visiting at Number Fifty. And with these
recommendations and assurances, Lady Alice was forced to be content.

She parted from her daughter at Waterloo Station. It did not seem
possible to her to drive up to her husband's house in a cab, and drive
away again. She committed her, therefore, to the care of Dayman, and put
the girl and her maid into a four-wheeler, with Lesley's luggage on the
top. Then she established herself in the ladies' waiting-room, until
such time as Dayman should return.

With beating heart and flushing cheek Lesley drove through the
rapidly-darkening streets to her father's house. She was terribly
nervous at the prospect of meeting him. And, even after the history
that she had learnt from her mother, she felt that she had not the
sligh