If the scandal was of a darker kind--a guilty wife--the mysterious disappearance of a husband--the horror of the thing may have made a deeper impression on Lady Maulevrier than even her nearest and dearest dream of: and that superb calm which she wears like a royal mantle may be maintained at the cost of struggles which tear her heart-strings.

And then at night, when the will is dormant, when the nervous system is no longer ruled by the power of waking intelligence, the old familiar agony returns, the hated images flash back upon the brain, and in proportion to the fineness of the temperament is the intensity of the dreamer's pain.' And then he went on to reflect upon the long monotonous years spent in that lonely house, shut in from the world by those everlasting hills.
Albeit the house was an ideal house, set in a landscape of infinite beauty, the monotony must be none the less oppressive for a mind burdened with dark memories, weighed down by sorrows which could seek no relief from sympathy, which could never become familiarised by discussion.
'I wonder that a woman of Lady Maulevrier's intellect should not have better known how to treat her own malady,' thought Hammond.
Mr.Hammond inquired after her ladyship's health next morning, and was told she was perfectly well.
'Grandmother is in capital spirits,' said Lady Lesbia.

'She is pleased with the contents of yesterday's _Globe_.

Lord Denyer, the son of one of her oldest friends, has been making a great speech at Liverpool in the Conservative interest, and her ladyship thinks we shall have a change of parties before long.' 'A general shuffle of the cards,' said Maulevrier, looking up from his breakfast.

'I'm sure I hope so.