At sight of Lily the glow deepened to an embarrassed red, and she said with a slight laugh: "Did you see my visitor?
Oh, I thought you came back by the avenue.

It was Mrs.George Dorset--she said she'd dropped in to make a neighbourly call." Lily met the announcement with her usual composure, though her experience of Bertha's idiosyncrasies would not have led her to include the neighbourly instinct among them; and Mrs.Gormer, relieved to see that she gave no sign of surprise, went on with a deprecating laugh: "Of course what really brought her was curiosity--she made me take her all over the house.

But no one could have been nicer--no airs, you know, and so good-natured: I can quite see why people think her so fascinating." This surprising event, coinciding too completely with her meeting with Dorset to be regarded as contingent upon it, had yet immediately struck Lily with a vague sense of foreboding.

It was not in Bertha's habits to be neighbourly, much less to make advances to any one outside the immediate circle of her affinities.

She had always consistently ignored the world of outer aspirants, or had recognized its individual members only when prompted by motives of self-interest; and the very capriciousness of her condescensions had, as Lily was aware, given them special value in the eyes of the persons she distinguished.