says you were so kind to him in America," said the duchess.

"We are very glad," Mrs. Westgate replied, "to have been able to make
him a little more--a little less--a little more comfortable."

"I think he stayed at your house," remarked the Duchess of Bayswater,
looking at Bessie Alden.

"A very short time," said Mrs. Westgate.

"Oh!" said the duchess; and she continued to look at Bessie, who was
engaged in conversation with her daughter.

"Do you like London?" Lady Pimlico had asked of Bessie, after looking at
her a good deal--at her face and her hands, her dress and her hair.

"Very much indeed," said Bessie.

"Do you like this hotel?"

"It is very comfortable," said Bessie.

"Do you like stopping at hotels?" inquired Lady Pimlico after a pause.

"I am very fond of traveling," Bessie answered, "and I suppose hotels
are a necessary part of it. But they are not the part I am fondest of."

"Oh, I hate traveling," said the Countess of Pimlico and transferred her
attention to Mrs. Westgate.

"My son tells me you are going to Branches," the duchess presently
resumed.

"Lord Lambeth has been so good as to ask us," said Mrs. Westgate, who
perceived that her visitor had now begun to look at her, and who had her
customary happy consciousness of a distinguished appearance. The only
mitigation of her felicity on this point was that, having inspected her
visitor's own costume, she said to herself, "She won't know how well I
am dressed!"

"He has asked me to go, but I am not sure I shall be able," murmured the
duchess.

"He had offered us the p--prospect of meeting you," said Mrs. Westgate.

"I hate the country at this season," responded the duchess.

Mrs. Westgate gave a little shrug. "I think it is pleasanter than
London."

But the duchess's eyes were absent again; she was looking very fixedly
at Bessie. In a moment she slowly rose, walked to a chair that stood
empty at the young girl's right hand, and silently seated herself.
As she was a majestic, voluminous woman, this little transaction had,
inevitably, an air of somewhat impressive intention. It diffused a
certain awkwardness, which Lady Pimlico, as a sympathetic daughter,
perhaps desired to rectify in turning to Mrs. Westgate.

"I daresay you go out a great deal," she observed.

"No, very little. We are strangers, and we didn't come here for
society."

"I see," said Lady Pimlico. "It's rather nice in town just now."

"It's charming," said Mrs.