ould not fail to bring her honour and
respect. She would shine by a reflected light, her glory all the greater
that the witnesses of it were themselves obscure--Lady Hermione and Mrs.
Callowgas excepted of course. Carteret's good-nature could be counted on
to bring him to the villa. And Damaris must be annexed. Assuming the role
and attitude of a vicarious motherhood, Henrietta herself could hardly
fail to gain distinction. It was a touching part--specially when played
by a childless woman only a little--yes, really only quite a little--past
her prime.

Here, indeed, was a great idea, as she came to grasp the possibilities
and scope of it. As chaperon to Damaris how many desirable doors would be
open to her! Delicately Henrietta hugged herself perceiving that, other
things being equal, her own career was by no means ended yet. Through
Damaris might she not very well enter upon a fresh and effective phase of
it? How often and how ruefully had she revolved the problem of advancing
age, questioning how gracefully to confront that dreaded enemy, and
endure its rather terrible imposition of hands without too glaring a loss
of prestige and popularity! Might not Damaris' childish infatuation
offer a solution of that haunting problem, always supposing the
infatuation could be revived, be recreated?

Ah! what a double-dyed idiot she had been yesterday, in permitting
feeling to outrun judgment!--With the liveliest satisfaction Henrietta
could have boxed her own pretty ears in punishment of her passing
weakness.--Yet surely time still remained wherein to retrieve her error
and restore her ascendency. Damaris might be unusually clever; but she
was also finely inexperienced, malleable, open to influence as yet. Let
Henrietta then see to it, and that without delay or hesitation, bringing
to bear every ingenious social art, and--if necessary--artifice, in which
long practice had made her proficient.

To begin with she would humble herself by writing a sweet little letter
to Damaris. In it she would both accuse and excuse her maladroitness of
yesterday, pleading the shock of so unlooked-for a coming together and
the host of memories evoked by it.--Would urge how deeply it affected
her, overcame her in fact, rendering her incapable of saying half the
affectionate things it was in her heart to say. She might touch on the
subject of Damaris' personal appearance again; which, by literally taking
her breath away, had contributed to her ge