oth, to Lady Hester the event was
anything but unwelcome.

She never had liked Sydney; she now detested the notion of a
step-daughter, almost of her own age, in the same society with herself;
she dreaded, besides, the influence that she had already acquired over
Kate, whose whole heart and nature she had resolved on monopolizing.
It was not from any feeling of attachment or affection, it was the pure
miser-like desire for possession that animated her. The plan of carrying
away Kate from her friends and home had been her own; she, therefore,
owned her; the original title was vested in her: the young girl's whole
future was to be in her hands; her "road in life" was to be at her
dictation. To be free of Sydney and the odious doctor by the same event
was a double happiness, which, in spite of all the decorous restraints
bad news impose, actually displayed itself in the most palpable form.

The Palazzo Mazzarini was now to be opened to the world, with all the
splendor wealth could bestow, untrammelled by any restriction the taste
of Sydney or the prudence of the doctor might impose. Sir Stafford, ever
ready to purchase quiet for himself at any cost of money, objected
to nothing. The cheapness of Italy, the expectations formed of an
Englishman, were the arguments which always silenced him if he ventured
on the very mildest remonstrance about expenditure; and Jekyl was
immediately called into the witness-box, to show that among the
economies of the Continent nothing was so striking as the facilities of
entertaining. George, as might be supposed, had no dislike to see their
own house the great centre of society, and himself the much sought-after
and caressed youth of the capital.

As for Kate, pleasure came associated in her mind with all that
could elevate and exalt it, refinement of manners, taste, luxury, the
fascinations of wit, the glitter of conversational brilliancy. She had
long known that she was handsome, but she had never felt it till now;
never awoke to that thrilling emotion which whispers of power over
others, and which elevates the possessor of a great quality into a
species of petty sovereignty above their fellows. Her progress in
this conviction was a good deal aided by her maid; for, at Jekyl's
suggestion, a certain Mademoiselle Nina had been attached to her
personal staff.

It was not easy at first for Kate to believe in the fact at all that she
should have a peculiar attendant; nor was it without much c