CHAPTER VI.
MAULEVRIER'S HUMBLE FRIEND.
That faint interest which Lady Lesbia had felt in the advent of a stranger dwindled to nothing after Mr.Hammond's frank avowal of his insignificance.

At the very beginning of her career, with the world waiting to be conquered by her, a high-born beauty could not be expected to feel any interest in nobodies.

Lesbia shook hands with her brother, honoured the stranger with a stately bend of her beautiful throat, and then withdrew herself from their society altogether as it were, and began to explore her basket of crewels, at a distant table, by the soft light of a shaded lamp, while Maulevrier answered his grandmother's questions, and Mary stood watching him, hanging on his words, as if unconscious of any other presence.
Mr.Hammond went over to the window and looked out at the view.

The moon was rising above the amphitheatre of hills, and her rays were silvering the placid bosom of the lake.

Lights were dotted here and there about the valley, telling of village life.