next to Mrs. Houghton--Adelaide De Baron, as she had been when
he had sighed in vain at her feet. How it had come to pass that he was
sitting there he did not know, but he was quite sure that it had come
to pass by no arrangement contrived by himself. He had looked at her
once since he had been in the room, almost blushing as he did so, and
had told himself that she was certainly very beautiful. He almost
thought that she was more beautiful than his wife; but he knew,--he
knew now,--that her beauty and her manners were not as well suited to
him as those of the sweet creature whom he had married. And now he was
once more seated close to her, and it was incumbent on him to speak to
her. "I hope," she said, almost in a whisper, but still not seeming to
whisper, "that we have both become very happy since we met last."

"I hope so, indeed," said he.

"There cannot, at least, be any doubt as to you, Lord George. I never
knew a sweeter young girl than Mary Lovelace; so pretty, so innocent,
and so enthusiastic. I am but a poor worldly creature compared to her."

"She is all that you say, Mrs. Houghton." Lord George also was
displeased,--more thoroughly displeased than had been his wife. But he
did not know how to show his displeasure; and though he felt it, he
still felt, also, the old influence of the woman's beauty.

"I am so delighted to have heard that you have got a house in Munster
Court. I hope that Lady George and I may be fast friends. Indeed, I
won't call her Lady George; for she was Mary to me before we either of
us thought of getting husbands for ourselves." This was not strictly
true, but of that Lord George could know nothing. "And I do hope,--may
I hope,--that you will call on me?"

"Certainly I will do so."

"It will add so much to the happiness of my life, if you will allow me
to feel that all that has come and gone has not broken the friendship
between us."

"Certainly not," said Lord George.

The lady had then said all that she had got to say, and changed her
position as silently as she had occupied it. There was no abruptness of
motion, and yet Lord George saw her talking to her husband at the other
side of the room, almost while his own words were still sounding in his
own ears. Then he watched her for the next few minutes. Certainly, she
was very beautiful. There was no room for comparison, they were so
unlike; otherwise, he would have been disposed to say that Adelaide was
the more beautiful. But