," said Sir Wilfrid,
kindly. "But I come home after three years. I find your house as
thronged as ever, in the old way. I see half the most distinguished
people in London in your drawing-room. It is sad that you can no longer
receive them as you used to do: but here you sit like a queen, and
people fight for their turn with you."

Lady Henry did not smile. She laid one of her wrinkled hands upon his
arm.

"Is there any one else within hearing?" she said, in a quick undertone.
Sir Wilfrid was touched by the vague helplessness of her gesture, as she
looked round her.

"No one--we are quite alone."

"They are not here for _me_--those people," she said, quivering, with a
motion of her hand towards the large drawing-room.

"My dear friend, what do you mean?"

"They are here--come closer, I don't want to be overheard--for a
_woman_--whom I took in, in a moment of lunacy--who is now robbing me of
my best friends and supplanting me in my own house."

The pallor of the old face had lost all its waxen dignity. The lowered
voice hissed in his ear. Sir Wilfrid, startled and repelled, hesitated
for his reply. Meanwhile, Lady Henry, who could not see it, seemed at
once to divine the change in his expression.

"Oh, I suppose you think I'm mad," she said, impatiently, "or
ridiculous. Well, see for yourself, judge for yourself. In fact, I have
been looking, hungering, for your return. You have helped me through
emergencies before now. And I am in that state at present that I trust
no one, talk to no one, except of _banalites_. But I should be greatly
obliged if _you_ would come and listen to me, and, what is more, advise
me some day."

"Most gladly," said Sir Wilfrid, embarrassed; then, after a pause, "Who
is this lady I find installed here?"

Lady Henry hesitated, then shut her strong mouth on the temptation to
speak.

"It is not a story for to-night," she said; "and it would upset me. But,
when you first saw her, how did she strike you?"

"I saw at once," said her companion after a pause, "that you had caught
a personality."

"A personality!" Lady Henry gave an angry laugh. "That's one way of
putting it. But physically--did she remind you of no one?"

Sir Wilfrid pondered a moment.

"Yes. Her face haunted me, when I first saw it. But--no; no, I can't put
any names."

Lady Henry gave a little snort of disappointment.

"Well, think. You knew her mother quite well. You have known her
grandfather all your life. If