To these dreamy strains Maulevrier and his friend presently entered.
'How d'ye do, grandmother?
how do, Lesbia?
This is my very good friend and Canadian travelling companion, Jack Hammond--Lady Maulevrier, Lady Lesbia.' 'Very glad to see you, Mr.Hammond,' said the dowager, in a tone so purely conventional that it might mean anything.

'Hammond?
I ought to remember your family--the Hammonds of----' 'Of nowhere,' answered the stranger in the easiest tone; 'I spring from a race of nobodies, of whose existence your ladyship is not likely to have heard.'.