friend had
disappeared. Biddy had attached herself to Peter, and Grace couldn't
have encouraged Mr. Nash.

V

Lady Agnes's idea had been that her son should go straight from the
Palais de l'Industrie to the Hotel de Hollande, with or without his
mother and his sisters as his humour should seem to recommend. Much as
she desired to see their valued Julia, and as she knew her daughters
desired it, she was quite ready to put off their visit if this sacrifice
should contribute to a speedy confrontation for Nick. She was anxious he
should talk with Mrs. Dallow, and anxious he should be anxious himself;
but it presently appeared that he was conscious of no pressure of
eagerness. His view was that she and the girls should go to their cousin
without delay and should, if they liked, spend the rest of the day in
her society. He would go later; he would go in the evening. There were
lots of things he wanted to do meanwhile.

This question was discussed with some intensity, though not at length,
while the little party stood on the edge of the Place de la Concorde, to
which they had proceeded on foot; and Lady Agnes noticed that the "lots
of things" to which he proposed to give precedence over an urgent duty,
a conference with a person who held out full hands to him, were implied
somehow in the friendly glance with which he covered the great square,
the opposite bank of the Seine, the steep blue roofs of the quay, the
bright immensity of Paris. What in the world could be more important
than making sure of his seat?--so quickly did the good lady's
imagination travel. And now that idea appealed to him less than a ramble
in search of old books and prints--since she was sure this was what he
had in his head. Julia would be flattered should she know it, but of
course she mustn't know it. Lady Agnes was already thinking of the least
injurious account she could give of the young man's want of
precipitation. She would have liked to represent him as tremendously
occupied, in his room at their own hotel, in getting off political
letters to every one it should concern, and particularly in drawing up
his address to the electors of Harsh. Fortunately she was a woman of
innumerable discretions, and a part of the worn look that sat in her
face came from her having schooled herself for years, in commerce with
her husband and her sons, not to insist unduly. She would have liked to
insist, nature had formed her to insist, and the self-contr