s. She liked to see
her friends arrive by degrees, and to feel that she had so far the
better of them. She came in, full as she always was of matter, with a
thousand things to say. "I have come to stay to dinner, if you will have
me," she said, "for of course Tom will be going out in the evening. They
are always so glad to get back to their life." And it was, perhaps, a
relief to have Lady Randolph to dinner, to be saved from the purely
domestic party, to which Jock scarcely added any new element; but it was
hard for Lucy to encounter even the brief questionings which were
addressed to her in the short interval before dinner. "So you have got
rid of that woman at last," Lady Randolph said; "I hear she has got a
house in Mayfair."

"Yes, Aunt Randolph, if you mean the Contessa," said Lucy.

"And that she intends to make a bold _coup_ to get the girl off her
hands. These sort of people so often succeed: I shouldn't wonder if she
were to succeed. I always said the girl would be handsome, but I think
she might have waited another year."

To this Lucy made no reply, and it was necessary for the Dowager to
carry on the conversation, so to speak, at her own cost.

"I hope most earnestly, Lucy," she said, "that now you have got clear of
them you will not mix yourself up with them again. You were placed in an
uneasy position, very difficult to get out of, I will allow; but now
that you have shaken them off, and they have proved they can get on
without you, don't, I entreat you, mix yourself up with them again."

Lucy could not keep the blood from mounting, and colouring her face. She
had always spoken of the Contessa calmly before. She tried to keep her
composure now. "Dear Aunt Randolph, I have not shaken them off. They
have gone away of themselves, and how can I refuse to see them? There is
to be a party here for them on the 26th."

"Oh, my dear, my dear, that was very imprudent! I had hoped you would
keep clear of them in London. It is one thing showing kindness to an old
friend in the country, and it is quite another----"

Here Lucy made an imperative gesture, almost commanding silence. Sir Tom
was coming into the room. She was seated in the great bay window
against the early twilight, the soft radiance of which dazzled the eyes
of the elder lady, and prevented her from perceiving her nephew's
approach. But Lady Randolph, before she rose to meet him, gave a
startled look at Lucy. "Have you found it out, then?" she sai