, during which she had seen but little of the Duke himself, she
had heard of Madame Max Goesler, but she had never met that lady.
Nevertheless, she knew the rival friend at a glance. Some instinct
told her that that woman with the black brow and the dark curls was
Madame Goesler. In these days the Marchioness was given to waddling
rather than to walking, but she waddled past the foreign female,--as
she had often called Madame Max,--with a dignified though duck-like
step. Lady Hartletop was a bold woman; and it must be supposed that
she had some heart within her or she would hardly have made such
a journey with such a purpose. "Dear Lady Hartletop," said Lady
Glencora, "I am so sorry that you should have had this trouble."

"I must see him," said Lady Hartletop. Lady Glencora put both her
hands together piteously, as though deprecating her visitor's wrath.
"I must insist on seeing him."

"Sir Omicron has refused permission to any one to visit him."

"I shall not go till I've seen him. Who was that lady?"

"A friend of mine," said Lady Glencora, drawing herself up.

"She is--, Madame Goesler."

"That is her name, Lady Hartletop. She is my most intimate friend."

"Does she see the Duke?"

Lady Glencora, when expressing her fear that the woman would come
to Matching, had confessed that she was afraid of Lady Hartletop.
And a feeling of dismay--almost of awe--had fallen upon her on
hearing the Marchioness announced. But when she found herself thus
cross-examined, she resolved that she would be bold. Nothing on
earth should induce her to open the door of the Duke's room to Lady
Hartletop, nor would she scruple to tell the truth about Madame
Goesler. "Yes," she said, "Madame Goesler does see the Duke."

"And I am to be excluded!"

"My dear Lady Hartletop, what can I do? The Duke for some time past
has been accustomed to the presence of my friend, and therefore her
presence now is no disturbance. Surely that can be understood."

"I should not disturb him."

"He would be inexpressibly excited were he to know that you were even
in the house. And I could not take it upon myself to tell him."

Then Lady Hartletop threw herself upon a sofa, and began to weep
piteously. "I have known him for more than forty years," she moaned,
through her choking tears. Lady Glencora's heart was softened, and
she was kind and womanly; but she would not give way about the Duke.
It would, as she knew, have been useless, as the Duke had d