t. The good Florence knew it
not much later, you may be sure--and how he had got their address from
Nick--and she took an extravagant pleasure in it. Mr. Sherringham had
never been to see _her_--the like of her--in his life: therefore it was
clear what had made him begin. When he had once begun he kept it up, and
Miss Tressilian's pleasure grew.

Good as she was, she could remember without the slightest relenting what
Nick Dormer had repeated to them at the theatre about the dreary side of
Peter's present post. However, she was not bound to make a stand at this
if persons more nearly concerned, Lady Agnes and the girl herself,
didn't mind it. How little _they_ minded it, and Grace and Julia Dallow
and even Nick, was proved in the course of a meeting that took place at
Harsh during the Easter holidays. The mistress of that seat had a small
and intimate party to celebrate her brother's betrothal. The two ladies
came over from Broadwood; even Nick, for two days, went back to his old
hunting-ground, and Miss Tressilian relinquished for as long a time the
delights of her newly arranged flat. Peter Sherringham obtained an
extension of leave, so that he might go back to his legation with a
wife. Fortunately, as it turned out, Biddy's ordeal, in the more or less
torrid zone, was not cruelly prolonged, for the pair have already
received a superior appointment. It is Lady Agnes's proud opinion that
her daughter is even now shaping their destiny. I say "even now," for
these facts bring me very close to contemporary history. During those
two days at Harsh Nick arranged with the former mistress of his fate the
conditions, as they might be called, under which she should sit to him;
and every one will remember in how recent an exhibition general
attention was attracted, as the newspapers said in describing the
private view, to the noble portrait of a lady which was the final
outcome of that arrangement. Gabriel Nash had been at many a private
view, but he was not at that one.

These matters are highly recent, however, as I say; so that in glancing
about the little circle of the interests I have tried to evoke I am
suddenly warned by a sharp sense of modernness. This renders it
difficult to me, for instance, in taking leave of our wonderful Miriam,
to do much more than allude to the general impression that her
remarkable career is even yet only in its early prime. Basil Dashwood
has got his theatre, and his wife--people know now she _