'"

"It was much better that you didn't do anything of the kind. Never pay
any attention when you think you hear a fine lady calling you, Philip.
It is better not to hear the Siren's call."

"When they're elderly Sirens like that!" said the boy, with a laugh.
"But I say, Uncle John, if you won't tell me who the lady is, who is the
girl? She has a pair of eyes!--not like Sirens though--eyes that go
through you--like--like a pair of lancets."

"A surgical operation in fact: and I shouldn't wonder if she meant
to be a doctor," said John. "The mother has done nothing all her life,
therefore the daughter means to do much. It is the natural reaction of
the generations. But I never noticed that Miss Dolly had any eyes--to
speak of," said the highly indifferent middle-aged man.

The boy flushed with a sense of indignation. "Perhaps you think the old
lady's were finer?" he said.

"I never admired the old lady, as you call her," said John, shortly; and
then he turned Philip's attention to something, possibly with the easily
satisfied conviction of a spectator that the boy thought of it no more.

"We met my Lady Mariamne in the park," he said to Elinor when they sat
at dinner an hour later at that bachelor table in Halkin Street, where
everything was so exquisitely cared for. It was like Elinor, but most
unlike the place in which she found herself, that she started so violently
as to shake the whole table, crying out in a tone of consternation,
"John!" as if he did not know very well what he might venture to say,
or as if he had any intention of betraying her to her son.

"She was very anxious," he said, perhaps playing a little with her
excitement, "to have Philip presented to her: but I sent him on--that is
to say, I thought I sent him on. The fellow went no farther than to the
next tree, where he stood and watched Miss Dolly, not feeling any
interest in the old lady, as he said."

"Well, Uncle John--did you expect me to look at the old lady? You are
not so fond of old ladies yourself."

"And who is Miss Dolly?" said Elinor, trying to conceal the beating of
her heart and the quiver on her lips with a smile; and then she added,
with a little catch of her breath, "Oh, yes, I remember there was a
little girl."

"You will be surprised to hear that we are by way of being great
friends. Her ladyship visits me in my chambers----"

Again Elinor uttered that startled cry, "John!" but she tried this time
to cover it with a tr