t once--the two yeoman-squires, who were not quite at
home in Mrs. Gaddesden's drawing-room, were awkward with their tea-cups,
and talked to each other in subdued voices, till Elizabeth found them
out, summoned them to her side, and made them happy; the agent who was
helping Lady Merton with tea, making himself generally useful; Philip
and another gilded youth, the son, he understood, of a neighbouring
peer, who were flirting with the girl in white; and yet a third
fastidious Etonian, who was clearly bored by the ladies, and was amusing
himself with the adjutant and a cigarette in a distant corner. His eyes
came back at last to the _pasteur_. An able face after all; cool,
shrewd, and not unspiritual. Very soon, he, the parson--whose name was
Everett--and Elizabeth were drawn into conversation, and Marietta under
Everett's good-humoured glance found himself observed as well
as observer.

"You are trying to decipher us?" said Everett, at last, with a smile.
"Well, we are not easy."

"Could you be a great nation if you were?"

"Perhaps not. England just now is a palimpsest--the new writing
everywhere on top of the old. Yet it is the same parchment, and the old
is there. Now _you_ are writing on a fresh skin."

"But with the old ideas!" said Mariette, a flash in his dark eyes.
"Church--State--family!--there is nothing else to write with."

The two men drew closer together, and plunged into conversation.
Elizabeth was left solitary a moment, behind the tea-things. The buzz of
the room, the hearty laugh of the Lord Lieutenant, reached the outer
ear. But every deeper sense was strained to catch a voice--a step--that
must soon be here. And presently across the room, her eyes met her
mother's, and their two expectancies touched.

"Mother!--here is Mr. Anderson!"

Philip entered joyously, escorting his guest.

To Anderson's half-dazzled sight, the room, which was now fully lit by
lamplight and fire, seemed crowded. He found himself greeted by a gentle
grey-haired lady of fifty-five, with a strong likeness to a face he
knew; and then his hand touched Elizabeth's. Various commonplaces passed
between him and her, as to his journey, the new motor which had brought
him to the house, the frosty evening. Mariette gave him a nod and smile,
and he was introduced to various men who bowed without any change of
expression, and to a girl, who smiled carelessly, and turned immediately
towards Philip, hanging over the back of her chair