She had allowed no one, not even Maulevrier, to be informed of the nature of her illness.
'It will be time enough for him to know all about me when he comes here,' she said.

'I shall be obliged to see him whenever he does come.' Maulevrier had spent Christmas and New Year in Paris, Mr.Hammond still his companion.

Her ladyship commented upon this with a touch of scorn.
'Mr.Hammond is like the Umbra you were reading about the other day in Lord Lytton's "Last Days of Pompeii,"' she said to Mary.

'It must be very nice for him to go about the world with a friend who franks him everywhere.' 'But we don't know that Maulevrier franks him,' protested Mary, blushing.

'We have no right to suppose that Mr.Hammond does not pay his own expenses.' 'My dear child, is it possible for a young man who has no private means to go gadding about the world on equal terms with a spendthrift like Maulevrier--to pay for Moors in Scotland and apartments at the Bristol ?' 'But they are not staying at the Bristol,' exclaimed Mary.
'They are staying at an old-established French hotel on the left side of the Seine.