es. I remember she saw the advertisement in the paper one morning
and took the cottage immediately."

"You had heard that we were relations?" he asked.

"Yes, vaguely. But I did not know how many of you there were, only
that the present holder of the title was a Sir Antony."

"It was a strange coincidence neither of us should have caught the
other's name at the ball that night."

"Yes."

"Afterwards, when we talked you over at Harley, every one had got
information about you, it seemed. They were all so awfully interested
in you. You looked such an extraordinary contrast to the rest of the
company."

"Well, I am glad of that."

He smiled.

"It was when I heard that your grandmother was a Frenchwoman I grasped
everything. I remembered there was some story in the family about a
younger son marrying a beautiful Parisienne. But it seemed to me it
must be too far back to be possible. And then Lady Tilchester told me
she was a very old woman. So we came over next day."

"I wish you had seen more of grandmamma," I said. "You would have got
on together. She used to say wonderful things sometimes."

"I thought her the most lovely old lady I had ever seen."

"Her maxims would fill a book as big as La Rochefoucauld."

"What a pity you did not write them down!"

"The Marquis and she had the _religion du beau_. They worshipped
everything that was beautiful and suitable and refined. They never did
anything for effect, only because the action was due to themselves and
was a good action." I paused.

"Go on, Comtesse," said Antony. "I like to hear it all."

"They really believed in _noblesse oblige_. Neither of them would have
stooped from their position--oh, not a little inch."

"It is a thing we have quite forgotten in England. It was
inconvenient, and most of us are not rich enough to indulge in it."

"But must one be rich to behave as of one's race?" I asked,
astonished.

"Yes--or remain in the background, a good deal bored. To obtain
the wherewithal to enjoy this rather expensive world, people stoop
considerably nowadays."

"And you don't think it dreadful?"

"I am not a Crusader. Times have changed. One can keep one's own ideas
and let others do as they please."

"Grandmamma had a maxim like that. She said it was _bourgeois_ to be
shocked and astonished at things. She believed in the difference of
classes. No one could have persuaded her that the common people are
made of the same flesh and blood as we a