ty, and Lady
Huntingtower, who was an impressive person, and knew the world. This
lady was very warm in her congratulations to Mrs. Dennistoun after
dinner on the absence of Lady Mariamne. "I think you are the luckiest
woman that ever was to have got clear of that dreadful creature," she
said. "Oh, there is nothing wrong about her that I know. She goes
everywhere with her dogs and her _cavaliers servantes_. There's safety
in numbers, my dear. She has always two of them at least hanging about
her to fetch and carry, and she thinks a great deal more of her dogs;
but I can't think what you could have done with her here."

"And what will my Elinor do in such a sphere?" the troubled mother
permitted herself to say.

"Oh, if that were all," said Lady Huntingtower, lifting up her fat
hands--she was one of those who had protested against the marriage, but
now that it had come to this point, and could not be broken off, the
judicious woman thought it right to make the best of it--"Elinor need
not be any the worse," she said. "Thank heaven, you are not obliged to
be mixed up with your husband's sister. Elinor must take a line of her
own. You should come to town yourself her first season, and help her on.
You used to know plenty of people."

"But they say," said Mrs. Dennistoun, "that it is so much better to
leave a young couple to themselves, and that a mother is always in the
way."

"If I were you I would not pay the least attention to what they say. If
you hold back too much they will say, 'There was her own mother, knowing
numbers of nice people, that never took the trouble to lend her a
hand.'"

"I hope," said Mrs. Dennistoun, turning round immediately to this other
aspect of affairs, "that it never will be necessary for the world to
interest itself at all in my child's affairs."

"Well, of course, that is the best," Lady Huntingtower allowed, "if she
just goes softly for a year or two till she feels her way."

"But then she is so young, and so little accustomed to act for herself,"
said the mother, with another change of flank.

"Oh, Elinor has a great deal of spirit. She must just make a stand
against the Compton set and take her own line."

Mrs. Hudson and Alice and Miss Tatham were at the other end of the room
exchanging a few criticisms under their breath, and disposed to think
that they were neglected by their hostess for the greater personage with
whom she was in such close conversation. And Lady Mariamne's