"You did not introduce me, Lucy. Is that an
Australian acquaintance of Harold Alison's? I did not expect such high
cultivation."

"An Australian acquaintance, yes," said I, "and also a Polish count."

"Prometesky!"

"Prometesky," said I, to whom the name had begun to sound historical.
"I did not know you did not recognise him."

I was afraid my old friend would be angry with me, but he stood still
and said, "I never saw him except at his trial. I can understand now
the fascination he was said to have possessed. I could not
conscientiously assist your nephew in his recall, but I highly honour
the generous perseverance with which he has effected it; and I am happy
to acknowledge that the subject is worthy of his enthusiasm. Animosity
may be laid aside now, and you may tell Mr. Harold Alison that I
heartily congratulate him."

"And he--Count Stanislas we call him--sees now that he was mistaken," I
said.

"Does he? That is the best of the higher stamp of men, my dear. They
know when they are wrong, and own it. In fact, that's the greatest
difference between men. The feeble and self-opinionated never
acknowledge an error, but the truly sincere can confess and retrieve
their hallucinations and prejudices. Well, I am glad to have seen
Prometesky, and to be disabused of some ideas respecting him."

Count Stanislas, on the other hand, received me with, "So that is
Erymanth! The tyrant, against whom we raged, proves a charitable,
benevolent, prosy old gentleman. How many illusions a few decades
dispel, and how much hatred one wastes!"

Lord Erymanth had told me that his sister would soon be at home, and in
September I was surprised by a call from Dermot. "Yes, I'm at Arked,"
he said, "Killy Marey is full of Dublin workmen. My uncle has
undertaken to make it habitable for me, like an old brick, and, in the
meantime, there's not a room fit to smoke or sleep in, so I'm come home
like a dutiful son."

"Then your mother is come?"

"Oh yes; she is come for six weeks, and then she and the St. Glears are
to join company and winter at Rome."

"At Rome?"

"Prevention, you see," said Dermot, with a twinkle in his eye, as if he
were not very uneasy. "The question is whether it is in time. She will
have Piggy's attentions at Christmas. He is to come out for the
vacation."

Then he further told me that his mother had brought home with her a
Mrs. Sandford with a daughter, heiress to L60,000, and to a
newly-bough