ke a pastime of an art? I soon saw that I
was never likely really to _do_ anything in music or drawing, and out
of respect for them I ceased to--to potter. Please don't think I apply
that word to you."

"Oh, but it is very applicable," replied Cecily, with a laugh. "I think
you are quite right; I often enough have the same feeling. But I am
full of inconsistencies--as you are finding out, I know."

Mrs. Lessingham displayed good nature in her intercourse with the
Denyers. She smiled in private, and of course breathed to Cecily a word
of warning; but the family entertained her, and Madeline she came
really to like. With Mrs. Denyer she compared notes on the Italy of
other days.

"A sad, sad change!" Mrs. Denyer was wont to sigh. "All the poetry
gone! Think of Rome before 1870, and what it is now becoming. One never
looked for intellect in Italy--living intellect, of course, I mean--but
natural poetry one did expect and find. It is heart-breaking, this
progress! If it were not for my dear girls, I shouldn't be here; they
adore Italy--of course, never having known it as it was. And I am sure
you must feel, as I do, Mrs. Lessingham, the miserable results of
cheapened travel. Oh, the people one sees at railway-stations, even
meets in hotels, I am sorry to say, sometimes! In a few years, I do
believe, Genoa and Venice will strongly remind one of Margate."

No echo of the cry of "Wolf!" ever sounded in Mrs. Denyer's
conversation when she spoke of her husband. That Odysseus of commerce
was always referred to as being concerned in enterprises of mysterious
importance and magnitude; she would hint that he had political
missions, naturally not to be spoken of in plain terms. Mrs. Lessingham
often wondered with a smile what the truth really was; she saw no
reason for making conjectures of a disagreeable kind, but it was pretty
clear to her that selfishness, idleness, and vanity were at the root of
Mrs. Denyer's character, and in a measure explained the position of the
family.

During the last few days, Barbara had exhibited a revival of interest
in the "place in Lincolnshire." Her experiments proved that it needed
but a moderate ingenuity to make Mr. Musselwhite's favourite topic
practically inexhaustible. The "place" itself having been sufficiently
described, it was natural to inquire what other "places" were its
neighbours, what were the characteristics of the nearest town, how long
it took to drive from the "place" to the