The little incident of the chain had somehow for the moment made the ball and her place in it more attractive to her.
* * * * * They had no sooner stepped from their carriage than Aldous, who was waiting in the outer hall, joyously discovered them.

Till then he had been walking aimlessly amid the crowd of his own guests, wondering when she would come, how she would like it.

This splendid function had been his grandfather's idea; it would never have entered his own head for a moment.

Yet he understood his grandfather's wish to present his heir's promised bride in this public ceremonious way to the society of which she would some day be the natural leader.

He understood, too, that there was more in the wish than met the ear; that the occasion meant to Lord Maxwell, whether Dick Boyce were there or no, the final condoning of things past and done with, a final throwing of the Maxwell shield over the Boyce weakness, and full adoption of Marcella into her new family.
All this he understood and was grateful for.