shrinking, that he
presently entered her ladyship's sitting-room, ushered in by Mary, who
had been to her grandmother beforehand to announce the grandson's
arrival.

The young man had hardly ever been in a sick room before. He half
expected to see Lady Maulevrier in bed, with a crowd of medicine bottles
and a cut orange on a table by her side, and a sick nurse of the
ancient-crone species cowering over the fire. It was an infinite relief
to him to find his grandmother lying on a sofa by the fire in her pretty
morning room. A little tea-table was drawn close up to her sofa, and she
was taking her afternoon tea. It was rather painful to see her lifting
her tea-cup slowly and carefully with her left hand, but that was all.
The dark eyes still flashed with the old eagle glance, the lines of the
lips were as proud and firm as ever. All sign of contraction or
distortion had passed away. In hours of calm her ladyship's beauty was
unimpaired; but with any strong emotion there came a convulsive working
of the features, and the face was momentarily drawn and distorted, as it
had been at the time of the seizure.

Maulevrier's presence had not an unduly agitating effect on her
ladyship. She received him with tranquil graciousness, and thanked him
for his coming.

'I hope you have spent your winter profitably in Paris,' she said.
'There is a great deal to be learnt there if you go into the right
circles.'

Maulevrier told her that he had found much to learn, and that he had
gone into circles where almost everything was new to him. Whereupon his
grandmother questioned him about certain noble families in the Faubourg
Saint Germain who had been known to her in her own day of power, and
whose movements she had observed from a distance since that time; but
here she found her grandson dark. He had not happened to meet any of the
people she spoke about: the plain truth being that he had lived
altogether as a Bohemian, and had not used one of the letters of
introduction that had been given to him.

'Your friend Mr. Hammond is with you, I am told,' said Lady Maulevrier,
not altogether with delight.

'Yes, I made him come; but he is quite safe. He will bolt like a shot at
the least hint of Lesbia's return. He doesn't want to meet that young
lady again, I can assure you.'

'Pray don't talk in that injured tone. Mr. Hammond is a gentlemanlike
person, very well informed, very agreeable. I have never denied that.
But you could not expec