One of the finest bits of acting I ever saw in my life,' said the court
physician. 'Mademoiselle Mars never did anything better.'

'Do you really think it was acting?' inquired Lord Denyer, affecting a
youthful candour and trustfulness which at his age, and with his
experience, he could hardly be supposed to possess.

'I know it,' replied the doctor. 'I watched her while she was talking of
Maulevrier, and I saw just one bead of perspiration break out on her
upper lip--an unmistakable sign of the mental struggle.'

CHAPTER II.

ULYSSES.

October was ending drearily with north-east winds, dust, drifting dead
leaves, and a steel-grey sky; and the Dolphin Hotel at Southampton was
glorified by the presence of Lady Maulevrier and suite. Her ladyship's
suite was on this occasion limited to three servants--her French maid, a
footman, and a kind of factotum, a man of no distinct and arbitrary
signification in her ladyship's household, neither butler nor steward,
but that privileged being, an old and trusted servant, and a person who
was supposed to enjoy more of Lady Maulevrier's confidence than any
other member of her establishment.

This James Steadman had been valet to her ladyship's father, Lord
Peverill, during the declining years of that nobleman. The narrow limits
of a sick room had brought the master and servant into a closer
companionship than is common to that relation. Lady Diana Angersthorpe
was a devoted daughter, and in her attendance upon the Earl during the
last three years of his life--a life which closed more than a year
before her own marriage--she saw a great deal of James Steadman, and
learned to trust him as servants are not often trusted. He was not more
than twenty years of age at the beginning of his service, but he was a
man of extraordinary gravity, much in advance of his years; a man of
shrewd common-sense and clear, sharp intellect. Not a reading man, or a
man in any way superior to his station and belongings, but a man who
could think quickly, and understand quickly, and who always seemed to
think rightly. Prompt in action, yet steady as a rock, and to all
appearance recognising no earthly interest, no human tie, beyond or
above the interests of his master. As a nurse Steadman showed himself
invaluable. Lord Peverill left him a hundred pounds in acknowledgment of
his services, which was something for Lord Peverill, who had very little
ready cash wherewith to endow his only daughter. Af