s as well that certain points should be--as it were
inadvertently--brought before her.

Miss Vanderpoel was really rather fine, people said to each other
afterwards, when she entered the ballroom at Dunholm Castle with her
brother-in-law. She bore herself as composedly as if she had been
escorted by the most admirable and dignified of conservative relatives,
instead of by a man who was more definitely disliked and disapproved of
than any other man in the county whom decent people were likely to meet.
Yet, she was far too clever a girl not to realise the situation clearly,
they said to each other. She had arrived in England to find her sister a
neglected wreck, her fortune squandered, and her existence stripped bare
of even such things as one felt to be the mere decencies. There was but
one thing to be deduced from the facts which had stared her in the
face. But of her deductions she had said nothing whatever, which was, of
course, remarkable in a young person. It may be mentioned that, perhaps,
there had been those who would not have been reluctant to hear what she
must have had to say, and who had even possibly given her a delicate
lead. But the lead had never been taken. One lady had even remarked
that, on her part, she felt that a too great reserve verged upon
secretiveness, which was not a desirable girlish quality.

Of course the situation had been so much discussed that people were
naturally on the lookout for the arrival of the Stornham party, as
it was known that Sir Nigel had returned home, and would be likely to
present himself with his wife and sister-in-law. There was not a dowager
present who did not know how and where he had reprehensibly spent the
last months. It served him quite right that the Spanish dancing person
had coolly left him in the lurch for a younger and more attractive, as
well as a richer man. If it were not for Miss Vanderpoel, one need not
pretend that one knew nothing about the affair--in fact, if it had not
been for Miss Vanderpoel, he would not have received an invitation--and
poor Lady Anstruthers would be sitting at home, still the forlorn little
frump and invalid she had so wonderfully ceased to be since her sister
had taken her in hand. She was absolutely growing even pretty and young,
and her clothes were really beautiful. The whole thing was amazing.

Betty, as well as Rosalie and Nigel--knew that many people turned
undisguisedly to look at them--even to watch them as they came