as
because he could do nothing else, the noise and chatter of the voices
being entirely destructive of that undisturbed state of the atmosphere
in which work can be done. It was not merely the sounds but the vibration
they made in the air, breaking all its harmony and concentration. He
tried a little longer, but was unsuccessful, and finally in despair he
said to Simmons, "You had better show them in, and let me get done with
them," in an angry tone.

"Oh, he will see us after all," said the high-pitched voice. "So good of
Mr. Tatham; but of course I should have waited all the same. Dolly, take
Toto; I can't possibly get up while I have him on my knee. You can tell
Mr. Tatham I did not send in my name to disturb him, which makes it all
the more charitable of him to receive me; but, dear me, of course I can
tell him that himself as he consents to see us. Dolly, don't strangle my
poor darling! I never saw a girl that didn't know how to take up a dear
dog before."

"He's only a snappish little demon, and you spoil him so," said the
other voice. This was attended by the sound of movement as if the party
were getting under weigh.

"My poor darling pet, it is only her jealousy: is that the way? Yes, to
be sure it is the next room. Now, Dolly, remember this is where all the
poor people are ruined and done for. Leave hope behind all ye who enter
here." A little shriek of laughter ended this speech. And John, looking
up, taking off his spectacles, and raising a little the shade of the
lamp, saw in the doorway Lady Mariamne, altered as was inevitable by the
strain and stress of nearly twenty years.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

I do not mean to assert that John Tatham had not seen Lady Mariamne
during these twenty years, or that her changed appearance burst upon him
with anything like a shock. In society, when you are once a member of
that little world within a world, everybody sees everybody else from
time to time. He had not recognised her voice, for he was not in the
smallest degree thinking of Lady Mariamne or of any member of her
family, notwithstanding that they now and then did make a very marked
appearance in his mind in respect of the important question of that
connection which Elinor in her foolishness tried to ignore. And John was
not at all shocked by the progress of that twenty years, as reflected in
the appearance of this lady, who was about his own standing, a woman
very near fifty, but who had fought strenuously