ity, buffeted by forces she did not understand;
or as some minor despot snuffed out by a stronger.

The General, who had only arrived just in time to dress, inquired in
astonishment for Daphne, and was told by Roger that his wife was not
well, but would come down for a little while after dinner. In presence
of the new splendours of Heston, the General had--in Roger's
company--very little to say. He made the vague remark that the
dining-room was "very fine," but he should not have known it again.
Where was the portrait of Edward, and the full-length of Edward's father
by Sir Francis Grant? Lady Barnes drew herself up, and said nothing.
Roger hastily replied that he believed they were now in the passage
leading to the billiard-room.

"What! that dark corner!" cried the General, looking with both distaste
and hostility at the famous Signorelli--a full-length nude St.
Sebastian, bound and pierced--which had replaced them on the dining-room
wall. Who on earth ever saw such a picture in a dining-room? Roger must
be a fool to allow it!

Afterwards the General and Lady Barnes wandered through the transformed
house, in general agreement as to the ugliness and extravagance of
almost everything that had been done, an agreement that was as balm to
the harassed spirits of the lady.

"What have they spent?" asked the General, under his breath, as they
returned to the drawing-room--"thousands and thousands, I should think!
And there was no need for them to spend a penny. It is a sinful waste,
and no one should waste money in these days--there are too many
unemployed!" He drew up his spare person, with a terrier-like shake of
the head and shoulders, as of one repudiating Mammon and all its works.

"Daphne has simply no idea of the value of money!" Lady Barnes
complained, also under her breath. They were passing along one of the
side corridors of the house, and there was no one in sight. But Roger's
mother was evidently uneasy, as though Daphne might at any moment spring
from the floor, or emerge from the walls. The General was really sorry
for her.

"It's like all the rest of them--Americans, I mean," he declared; "they
haven't our sense of responsibility. I saw plenty of that in the
States."

Lady Barnes acquiesced. She was always soothed by the General's
unfaltering views of British superiority.

They found Daphne in the drawing-room--a ghostly Daphne, in white, and
covered with diamonds. She made a little perfunctory conve