me here for a few days. Such a delightful man he
is."

"Oh, dear me, yes," cried Lady Garvington, starting. "I remember. He
wrote yesterday from London, asking if he might come. I told him yes,
although I mentioned that we had hardly anyone with us just now."

Miss Greeby looked greatly annoyed, as Mrs. Belgrove maliciously saw,
for she knew well that the heiress would now regret having so hastily
intimated her approaching departure. What was the expression on Lady
Agnes's face, the old lady could not see, for the millionaire's wife
shielded it--presumably from the fire--with a large fan of white
feathers. Had Mrs. Belgrove been able to read that countenance she would
have seen satisfaction written thereon, and would probably have set down
the expression to a wrong cause. In reality, Agnes was glad to think
that Lambert's promise was being kept, and that he no longer intended to
avoid her company so openly.

But if she was pleased, Miss Greeby was not, and still continued to look
annoyed, since she had burnt her boats by announcing her departure. And
what annoyed her still more than her hasty decision was, that she would
leave Lambert in the house along with the rival she most dreaded. Though
what the young man could see in this pale, washed-out creature Miss
Greeby could not imagine. She glanced at a near mirror and saw her own
opulent, full-blown looks clothed in a pale-blue dinner-gown, which went
so well--as she inartistically decided, with her ruddy locks, Mrs.
Belgrove considered that Miss Greeby looked like a paint-box, or a
sunset, or one of Turner's most vivid pictures, but the heiress was very
well pleased with herself. Lady Agnes, in her favorite white, with her
pale face and serious looks, was but a dull person of the nun
persuasion. And Miss Greeby did not think that Lambert cared for nuns,
when he had an Amazonian intelligent pal--so she put it--at hand. But,
of course, he might prefer dark beauties like Chaldea. Poor Miss Greeby;
she was pursuing her wooing under very great difficulties, and became
silent in order to think out some way of revoking in some natural
manner the information of her departure.

There were other women in the room, who joined in the conversation, and
all were glad to hear that Mr. Lambert intended to pay a visit to his
cousin, for, indeed, the young man was a general favorite. And then as
two or three decided--Mrs. Belgrove amongst the number--there really
could be nothing in