ut on my poor little grave--

"She's buried here--that hizzie Betty;
She did na gude--so don't ee fret ye!

"--oh, there they are!"--she ran to the window--"Lady Winterbourne and
Ermyntrude. Doesn't it make you laugh to see Lady Winterbourne doing her
duties? She gets into her carriage after lunch as one might mount a
tumbril. I expect to hear her tell the coachman to drive to the scaffold
at Hyde Park Corner.' She looks the unhappiest woman in England--and all
the time Ermyntrude declares she likes it, and wouldn't do without her
season for the world! She gives Ermyntrude a lot of trouble, but she
_is_ a dear--a naughty dear--and mothers are _such_ a chance!
Ermyntrude! _where_ did you get that bonnet? You got it without me--and
my feelings won't stand it!"

Lady Ermyntrude and Betty threw themselves on a sofa together,
chattering and laughing. Lady Winterbourne came up to Marcella and
enquired after her. She was still slowly drawing off her gloves, when
the drawing-room door opened again.

"Tea, Panton!" said Lady Winterbourne, without turning her head, and in
the tone of Lady Macbeth. But the magnificent butler took no notice.

"Lady Selina Farrell!" he announced in a firm voice.

Lady Winterbourne gave a nervous start; then, with the air of a person
cut out of wood, made a slight advance, and held out a limp hand to her
visitor.

"Won't you sit down?" she said.

Anybody who did not know her would have supposed that she had never seen
Lady Selina before. In reality she and the Alresfords were cousins. But
she did not like Lady Selina, and never took any pains to conceal it--a
fact which did not in the smallest degree interfere with the younger
lady's performance of her family duties.

Lady Selina found a seat with easy aplomb, put up her bejewelled fingers
to draw off her veil, and smilingly prepared herself for tea. She
enquired of Betty how she was enjoying herself, and of Lady Ermyntrude
how her husband and baby in the country were getting on without her. The
tone of this last question made the person addressed flush and draw
herself up. It was put as banter, but certainly conveyed that Lady
Ermyntrude was neglecting her family for the sake of dissipations. Betty
meanwhile curled herself up in a corner of the sofa, letting one pretty
foot swing over the other, and watching the new-comer with a malicious
eye, which instantly and gleefully perceived that Lady Selina thought
her attitude ungraceful.