tic mother, thought
himself at liberty, in his declining years, to please himself. He had
left her the dower-house--small but delicately Jacobean--and she was now
nearly as old as the Duke had been when he married her. She was largely
made, shapeless, and untidy. Her mannish face and head were tied up in a
kind of lace coif; she had long since abandoned all thought of a waist;
and her strong chin rested on an ample bosom.

As soon as Mrs. Barnes was seated near her hostess, Lelius--who had an
intimate acquaintance, through their pictures, with half the great
people of Europe--began to observe the Duchess's impressions. Amused
curiosity, first. Evidently Daphne represented to her one of the queer,
crude types that modern society is always throwing up on the shores of
life--like strange beasts from deep-sea soundings.

An American heiress, half Spanish--South-American Spanish--with no doubt
a dash of Indian; no manners, as Europe understands them; unlimited
money, and absurd pretensions--so Chloe said--in the matter of art; a
mixture of the pedant and the _parvenue_; where on earth had young
Barnes picked her up! It was in some such way, no doubt--so Lelius
guessed--that the Duchess's thoughts were running.

Meanwhile Mrs. Barnes was treated with all possible civility. The
Duchess inquired into the plans for rebuilding Heston; talked of her own
recollections of the place, and its owners; hoped that Mrs. Barnes was
pleased with the neighbourhood; and finally asked the stock question,
"And how do you like England?"

Daphne looked at her coolly. "Moderately!" she said, with a smile, the
colour rising in her cheek as she became aware, without looking at them,
that Roger and Mrs. Fairmile had adjourned to the farther end of the
large room, leaving her to the Duchess and Lelius.

The small eyes above the Duchess's prominent nose sparkled. "Only
moderately?" The speaker's tone expressed that she had been for once
taken by surprise. "I'm extremely sorry we don't please you, Mrs.
Barnes."

"You see, my expectations were so high."

"Is it the country, or the climate, or the people, that won't do?"
inquired the Duchess, amused.

"I suppose it would be civil to say the climate," replied Daphne,
laughing.

Whereupon the Duchess saw that her visitor had made up her mind not to
be overawed. The great lady summoned Dr. Lelius to her aid, and she, the
German, and Daphne, kept up a sparring conversation, in which Mrs.
Barnes, d