arian who had painted another and larger apartment of Fieldhead--the
drawing-room, to wit, formerly also an oak-room--of a delicate pinky
white, thereby earning for himself the character of a Hun, but mightily
enhancing the cheerfulness of that portion of his abode, and saving
future housemaids a world of toil.

The brown-panelled parlour was furnished all in old style, and with real
old furniture. On each side of the high mantelpiece stood two antique
chairs of oak, solid as silvan thrones, and in one of these sat a lady.
But if this were Miss Keeldar, she must have come of age at least some
twenty years ago. She was of matronly form, and though she wore no cap,
and possessed hair of quite an undimmed auburn, shading small and
naturally young-looking features, she had no youthful aspect, nor
apparently the wish to assume it. You could have wished her attire of a
newer fashion. In a well-cut, well-made gown hers would have been no
uncomely presence. It puzzled you to guess why a garment of handsome
materials should be arranged in such scanty folds, and devised after
such an obsolete mode. You felt disposed to set down the wearer as
somewhat eccentric at once.

This lady received the visitors with a mixture of ceremony and
diffidence quite English. No middle-aged matron who was not an
Englishwoman _could_ evince precisely the same manner--a manner so
uncertain of herself, of her own merits, of her power to please, and yet
so anxious to be proper, and, if possible, rather agreeable than
otherwise. In the present instance, however, more embarrassment was
shown than is usual even with diffident Englishwomen. Miss Helstone felt
this, sympathized with the stranger, and knowing by experience what was
good for the timid, took a seat quietly near her, and began to talk to
her with a gentle ease, communicated for the moment by the presence of
one less self-possessed than herself.

She and this lady would, if alone, have at once got on extremely well
together. The lady had the clearest voice imaginable--infinitely softer
and more tuneful than could have been reasonably expected from forty
years--and a form decidedly inclined to _embonpoint_. This voice
Caroline liked; it atoned for the formal, if correct, accent and
language. The lady would soon have discovered she liked it and her, and
in ten minutes they would have been friends. But Mr. Helstone stood on
the rug looking at them both, looking especially at the strange lady
wit