Rowland continued to see Madame Grandoni, for whom he felt a confirmed affection.

He had always talked to her with frankness, but now he made her a confidant of all his hidden dejection.

Roderick and Roderick's concerns had been a common theme with him, and it was in the natural course to talk of Mrs.Hudson's arrival and Miss Garland's fine smile.
Madame Grandoni was an intelligent listener, and she lost no time in putting his case for him in a nutshell.

"At one moment you tell me the girl is plain," she said; "the next you tell me she 's pretty.

I will invite them, and I shall see for myself.