wn upon her a feeling less favourable to the
Earl than that which he had inspired when she first saw him, and
which he had increased when they were together at Yoxham. It is hard
to say why the Earl had ceased to charm her, or by what acts or words
he had lowered himself in her eyes. He was as handsome as ever, as
much like a young Apollo, as gracious in his manner, and as gentle in
his gait. And he had been constant to her. Perhaps it was that she
had expected that one so godlike should have ceased to adore a woman
who had degraded herself to the level of a tailor, and that, so
conceiving, she had begun to think that his motives might be merely
human, and perhaps sordid. He ought to have abstained and seen her no
more after she had owned her own degradation. But she said nothing
of all this to Mrs. Bluestone. She made no answer to the sermons
preached to her. She certainly said no word tending to make that lady
think that the sermons had been of any avail. "She looks as soft as
butter," Mrs. Bluestone said that morning to her husband; "but she is
obstinate as a pig all the time."

"I suppose her father was the same way before her," said the
Serjeant, "and God knows her mother is obstinate enough."

When the Countess was shown into the room Lady Anna was trembling
with fear and emotion. Lady Lovel, during the last few weeks, since
her daughter had seen her, had changed the nature of her dress.
Hitherto, for years past, she had worn a brown stuff gown, hardly
ever varying even the shade of the sombre colour,--so that her
daughter had perhaps never seen her otherwise clad. No woman that
ever breathed was less subject to personal vanity than had been the
so-called Countess who lived in the little cottage outside Keswick.
Her own dress had been as nothing to her, and in the days of her
close familiarity with old Thomas Thwaite she had rebuked her friend
when he had besought her to attire herself in silk. "We'll go into
Keswick and get Anna a new ribbon," she would say, "and that will be
grandeur enough for her and me too." In this brown dress she had come
up to London, and so she had been clothed when her daughter last saw
her. But now she wore a new, full, black silk dress, which, plain
as it was, befitted her rank and gave an increased authority to her
commanding figure. Lady Anna trembled all the more, and her heart
sank still lower within her, because her mother no longer wore the
old brown gown. When the Countess ent