ve
him an appointment for a private talk.

Edmund arrived late at Westmoreland House when the party was in full
swing. He paused a moment on the wide marble steps of the well staircase
as he saw a familiar face coming across the hall. It was the English
Ambassador in Madrid, just arrived home on leave, as Edmund knew. He was
a handsome grey-haired man of thin, nervous figure, and he sprang
lightly to meet his old friend and put his hand on his arm.

"Grosse!" he cried, "well met." And then, in low, quick tones he added:
"What am I going to see at the top of this ascent? This amazing young
woman! What does it mean, eh? I knew the wicked old mother. Tell me, was
she really married to David Bright all the time? Was it Enoch Arden the
other way up? But we must go on," for other late arrivals were joining
them. When they reached the landing the two men stood aside for a
moment, for they saw that it was too late for them to be announced.
Royalty was going in to supper.

A line of couples was crossing the nearest room, from one within. The
great square drawing-room was lit entirely by candles in the sconces
that were part of the permanent decoration. But the many lights hardly
penetrated into the great depths of the pictures let into the walls.
These big, dark canvases by some forgotten Italian of the school of
Veronese, gave the room something of the rich gloom of a Venetian
palace. Beyond a few stacks of lilies in the corners, Molly had done
nothing to relieve its solemn dignity. As she came across it from the
opposite corner, the depths of the old pictures were the background to
her white figure.

She was bending her head towards the Prince who was taking her down--a
tall, fair man with blue eyes and a heavy jaw. Then as she came near the
doorway she raised her head and saw Edmund. There was a strange, soft
light in her eyes as she looked at him. It was the touch of soul needed
to give completeness to her magnificence as a human being. The white
girlish figure in that room fitted the past as well as the present. The
great women of the past had been splendidly young too, whereas we keep
our girls as children, comparatively speaking.

Molly had that combination of youth and experience which gives a
special character to beauty. There was no detailed love of fashion in
her gorgeous simplicity of attire; there was rather something subtly in
keeping with the house itself.

The Prince turned to speak to the Ambassador, and