You must bear all the circumstances in mind as
they presented themselves to her. Conceive what the "nice old Bart" had
been to her over five-and-twenty years ago, when she herself was a
dazzling young beauty of another generation! Think how strange it must
have been, to hear the audacities of this new creature, undreamed of
then, spoken so placidly through an amused smile, as she watched the
firelight serenely from the arm-chair she had subsided on--an anchorage
"three words" would never have warranted, even the most unbridled
polysyllables. "Do you not think"--her dignified mamma continued--"you
had better be getting ready for dinner? You are always longer than me."

"I'm going directly. Lutwyche is never ready. I suppose I ought to go,
though.... You are not asking after my old lady, and I think you might."

"Oh yes," said her ladyship negligently. "I haven't seen you since you
didn't go to church with me. How _is_ your old lady?"

"You don't care, so it doesn't matter. How was Dr. Tuxford Somers?"

"My dear--don't be nonsensical! How can you expect me to gush over about
an old person I have not so much as seen?" She added as an
afterthought:--"However worthy she may be!"

"You could have seen her quite well, when she was here. Papa did.
Besides, one can show a human interest, without gushing over."

"My dear, I hope I am never wanting in human interest. How is Mrs....
Mrs....?"

"Mrs. Prichard?"

"Yes--how is she? Is she coming back here?"

"Is it likely? Besides, she can't be moved."

"Oh--it's as bad as that!"

"My dear mamma, haven't I told you fifty times?" This was not exactly
the case; but it passed, in conversation. "The darling old thing was all
but killed by being told...."

"By being told?... Oh yes, I remember! They were sisters, in Van
Diemen's Land.... But she's better again now?"

"Yes--better. Oh, here's Starfield, and there's papa in his room. I can
hear him. I must go."

At dinner that evening nobody was in any way new or remarkable, unless
indeed Sir Spencer and Lady Derrick, who had been in Canada, counted.
There was one guest, not new, but of interest to Gwen. Do you happen to
remember General Rawnsley, who was at the Towers in July, when Adrian
had his gunshot accident? It was he who was nearly killed by a Mahratta,
at Assaye, when he was a young lieutenant. Gwen had issued orders that
he should take her in to dinner, when she heard on her arrival that he
had accepted her mother