worldly gossip, Evermond!

Hector had gone from Monte Carlo to Venice, and then to Paris, where he
had been for more than a month, and she had heard that men could become
quite infatuated and absolutely ruined by these creatures. So for him to
have taken a fancy to a married American was considerably better than
that. She had met several members of this nation herself in England, and
were they not always very discreet, with well-balanced heads! So
altogether the puckered frown soon left her smooth brow, and she was
able to resume the knitting of a tie she was doing for her son, with a
spirit more or less at rest, though she sighed now and then as she
remembered Morella Winmarleigh could not be expected to wait
forever--and her cherished vision of perfectly behaved, vigorously
healthy grandchildren was still a long way from being realized. For with
such a mother what perfect children they would be! This was always her
final reflection.

VII

At twelve o'clock punctually Lord Bracondale was ushered into Mrs.
McBride's sitting-room at the Ritz, the day after her dinner-party at
Armenonville. He expected she would not be ready to receive him for at
least half an hour; having said twelve he might have known she meant
half-past, but he was in a mood of impatience, and felt obliged to be
punctual.

He was suffering more or less from a reaction. He had begun towards
morning to realize the manner in which he had spent the evening was not
altogether wise. Not that he had the least intention of not repeating
his folly--indeed, he was where he was at this hour for no other purpose
than to enlist the widow's sympathy, and her co-operation in arranging
as many opportunities for similar evenings as together they could
devise.

After all, she only kept him waiting twenty minutes, and he had been
rather amused looking at the piles of bric-a-brac obsequious art dealers
had left for this rich lady's inspection.

A number of spurious bronzes warranted pure antique, clocks, brocades,
what not, lying about on all the available space.

"And I wonder what it will look like in her marble palace halls," he
thought, as he passed from one article to another.

"I am just too sorry to keep you, mon cher Bracondale," Mrs. McBride
said, presently, suddenly opening the adjoining door a few inches, "but
it is a quite exasperating hat which has delayed me. I can't get the
thing on at the angle I want. I--"

"Mayn't I come and help, de