impression of brandy and soda had not again been
given her. More striking still however was Selina's capacity to recover
from shocks and condone imputations; she kissed again--kissed
Laura--without tears, and proposed problems connected with the
rearrangement of trimmings and of the flowers at dinner, as
candidly--as earnestly--as if there had never been an intenser question
between them. Captain Crispin was not mentioned; much less of course, so
far as Laura was concerned, was he seen. But Lady Ringrose appeared; she
came down for two days, during an absence of Lionel's. Laura, to her
surprise, found her no such Jezebel but a clever little woman with a
single eye-glass and short hair who had read Lecky and could give her
useful hints about water-colours: a reconciliation that encouraged the
girl, for this was the direction in which it now seemed to her best that
she herself should grow.

VII

In Grosvenor Place, on Sunday afternoon, during the first weeks of the
season, Mrs. Berrington was usually at home: this indeed was the only
time when a visitor who had not made an appointment could hope to be
admitted to her presence. Very few hours in the twenty-four did she
spend in her own house. Gentlemen calling on these occasions rarely
found her sister: Mrs. Berrington had the field to herself. It was
understood between the pair that Laura should take this time for going
to see her old women: it was in that manner that Selina qualified the
girl's independent social resources. The old women however were not a
dozen in number; they consisted mainly of Lady Davenant and the elder
Mrs. Berrington, who had a house in Portman Street. Lady Davenant lived
at Queen's Gate and also was usually at home of a Sunday afternoon: her
visitors were not all men, like Selina Berrington's, and Laura's
maidenly bonnet was not a false note in her drawing-room. Selina liked
her sister, naturally enough, to make herself useful, but of late,
somehow, they had grown rarer, the occasions that depended in any degree
upon her aid, and she had never been much appealed to--though it would
have seemed natural she should be--on behalf of the weekly chorus of
gentlemen. It came to be recognised on Selina's part that nature had
dedicated her more to the relief of old women than to that of young men.
Laura had a distinct sense of interfering with the free interchange of
anecdote and pleasantry that went on at her sister's fireside: the
anecdotes we