Strangers, who saw her for the first time, saw a lady in the prime of her life--a lady plainly dressed in unornamented white--who advanced slowly, and confronted the mistress of the house.
A certain proportion--and not a small one--of the men at the lawn-party had been brought there by friends who were privileged to introduce them.

The moment she appeared every one of those men suddenly became interested in the lady who had been chosen first.
"That's a very charming woman," whispered one of the strangers at the house to one of the friends of the house.

"Who is she ?" The friend whispered back.
"Miss Lundie's governess--that's all." The moment during which the question was put and answered was also the moment which brought Lady Lundie and Miss Silvester face to face in the presence of the company.
The stranger at the house looked at the two women, and whispered again.
"Something wrong between the lady and the governess," he said.
The friend looked also, and answered, in one emphatic word: "Evidently!" There are certain women whose influence over men is an unfathomable mystery to observers of their own sex.

The governess was one of those women.

She had inherited the charm, but not the beauty, of her unhappy mother.