e
alone. 'Tis thee he comes after."

CHAPTER XIII--Wherein a deadly war begins

The town and the World of Fashion greeted her on her return with open
arms. Those who looked on when she bent the knee to kiss the hand of
Royalty at the next drawing-room, whispered among themselves that
bereavement had not dimmed her charms, which were even more radiant than
they had been at her presentation on her marriage, and that the mind of
no man or woman could dwell on aught as mournful as widowhood in
connection with her, or, indeed, could think of anything but her
brilliant beauty. 'Twas as if from this time she was launched into a new
life. Being rich, of high rank, and no longer an unmarried woman, her
position had a dignity and freedom which there was no creature but might
have envied. As the wife of Dunstanwolde she had been the fashion, and
adored by all who dared adore her; but as his widow she was surrounded
and besieged. A fortune, a toast, a wit, and a beauty, she combined all
the things either man or woman could desire to attach themselves to the
train of; and had her air been less regal, and her wit less keen of edge,
she would have been so beset by flatterers and toadies that life would
have been burdensome. But this she would not have, and was swift enough
to detect the man whose debts drove him to the expedient of daring to
privately think of the usefulness of her fortune, or the woman who
manoeuvred to gain reputation or success by means of her position and
power.

"They would be about me like vultures if I were weak fool enough to let
them," she said to Anne. "They cringe and grovel like spaniels, and
flatter till 'tis like to make one sick. 'Tis always so with toadies;
they have not the wit to see that their flattery is an insolence, since
it supposes adulation so rare that one may be moved by it. The men with
empty pockets would marry me, forsooth, and the women be dragged into
company clinging to my petticoats. But they are learning. I do not
shrink from giving them sharp lessons."

This she did without mercy, and in time cleared herself of hangers-on, so
that her banquets and assemblies were the most distinguished of the time,
and the men who paid their court to her were of such place and fortune
that their worship could but be disinterested.

Among the earliest to wait upon her was his Grace of Osmonde, who found
her one day alone, save for the presence of Mistress Anne, whom she kept