nto divinity, at least into manliness; and
the shattering of the false image had done him yeoman's service. Now
had come this accursed letter, and Lily, despite herself, despite her
better judgment, could not sweep it away from her mind and make the
letter as nothing to her. M. D. had promised not to interfere with
her! There was no room for such interference, no possibility that
such interference should take place. She hoped earnestly,--so she
told herself,--that her old friend John Eames might have nothing to
do with a woman so impudent and vulgar as must be this M. D.; but
except as regarded old friendship, M. D. and John Eames, apart or
together, could be as nothing to her. Therefore, I say that the
letter had had the effect which the writer of it had desired.

All London was new to Lily Dale, and Mrs. Thorne was very anxious
to show her everything that could be seen. She was to return to
Allington before the flowers of May would have come, and the crowd
and the glare and the fashion and the art of the Academy's great
exhibition must therefore remain unknown to her; but she was taken to
see many pictures, and among others she was taken to see the pictures
belonging to a certain nobleman who, with that munificence which is
so amply enjoyed and so little recognised in England, keeps open
house for the world to see the treasures which the wealth of his
family had collected. The necessary order was procured, and on a
certain brilliant April afternoon, Mrs. Thorne and her party found
themselves in this nobleman's drawing-room. Lily was with her, of
course, and Emily Dunstable was there, and Bernard Dale, and Mrs
Thorne's dear friend Mrs. Harold Smith, and Mrs. Thorne's constant
and useful attendant, Siph Dunn. They had nearly completed their
delightful but wearying task of gazing at pictures, and Mrs. Harold
Smith had declared that she would not look at another painting till
the exhibition was open; three of the ladies were seated in the
drawing-room, and Siph Dunn was standing before them, lecturing
about art as though he had been brought up on the ancient masters;
Emily and Bernard were lingering behind, and the others were simply
delaying their departure till the truant lovers should have caught
them. At this moment two gentlemen entered the room from the gallery,
and the two gentlemen were Fowler Pratt and Adolphus Crosbie.

All the party except Mrs. Thorne knew Crosbie personally, and all of
them except Mrs. Harol