.

"You have always taught me, Aunt Randolph," she said with great
astuteness, "that I ought not to judge of the manners of strangers by
my own little rules--especially of foreigners," she added, with a sense
of her own cleverness which half comforted her amid other feelings not
agreeable. It was seldom that Lucy felt any sense of triumph in her own
powers.

"Foreigners?" said Lady Randolph, with disdain. But then she stopped
short with a pause of indignation. "That woman," she said, which was the
only name she ever gave the visitor, "has some scheme in her head you
may be sure. I do not know what it is. It would not do her any good that
I can see to increase her hold upon Tom."

"Upon Tom!" cried Lucy. It was her turn now to be indignant. "I don't
know what you mean, Aunt Randolph," she said. "I cannot think that you
want to make me--uncomfortable. There are some things I do not like in
Madame di Forno-Populo. She is--different; but she is my husband's
friend. If you mean that they will become still greater friends seeing
more of each other, that is natural. For why should you be friends at
all unless you like each other? And that Tom likes her must be just a
proof that I am wrong. It is my ignorance. Perhaps the wisest way would
be to say nothing more about it," young Lady Randolph concluded,
briskly, with a sudden smile.

The Dowager looked at her as if she were some wonder in natural history,
the nature of which it was impossible to divine. She thought she knew
Lucy very well, but yet had never understood her, it being more
difficult for a woman of the world to understand absolute
straightforwardness and simplicity than it is even for the simple to
understand the worldly. She was silent for a moment and stared at Lucy,
not knowing what to make of her. At last she resumed as if going on
without interruption. "But she has some scheme in hand, perhaps in
respect to the girl. The girl is a very handsome creature, and might
make a hit if she were properly managed. My belief is that this has been
her scheme all through. But partly the presence of Tom--an old friend as
you say of her own--and partly the want of opportunity, has kept it in
abeyance. That is my idea, Lucy; you can take it for what it is worth.
And your home will be the headquarters, the centre from which the
adventuress will carry on----"

"Aunt Randolph!" Lucy's voice was almost loud in the pain and
indignation that possessed her. She put out her hand