Bailey, who had concluded to devote another year to her beloved music
before returning to America.

Mrs. Hawley was a woman who dearly loved society, and always had a long
list of engagements--one who had it in her power to be so charming could
not fail to be a welcome guest wherever she went--consequently, it was
perfectly natural that she should wish her friend to participate in her
enjoyment.

Mrs. Mencke at first faintly demurred upon the ground of being in
mourning, but Mrs. Hawley, who did not believe in mourning anyway,
easily overruled her scruples.

"What is the harm?" she questioned. "You cannot do Violet any good by
secluding yourself, and no one here knows you well enough to gossip
about you. It would be different, perhaps, if you were at home, where
people have known you all your life."

So Mrs. Mencke, who liked gay life as well as any one, smothered her
conscience, and, never doing things by halves, went everywhere.

It was at a reception given by the American Consul that she met Lord
Cameron and his mother, Lady Isabel having been an intimate friend of
the gentleman's family when her home was in New York.

Mrs. Mencke, ignoring entirely the barriers that had arisen between them
at Mentone, appeared delighted to meet her "dear friends," but the
greetings upon their part were decidedly cool, while Lady Cameron looked
the reproaches she could not utter at Mrs. Mencke's gay manner and
attire, and uttered a sigh of regret that the gentle girl, whom she had
begun to love as a daughter, should so soon have been forgotten by her
only relative.

"Are you in London for any length of time, Lady Cameron?" Mrs. Mencke
inquired, secretly hoping that she might get an invitation to visit her
at her town-house.

"Only for a week or two longer, as my son's affairs call him to his
estate in Essex," was the somewhat formal reply.

"Indeed! and have you been in town long?"

"About a month."

"Really? I wonder that we have not met before, then," Mrs. Mencke
remarked, with some surprise.

"It is not strange," said Lady Cameron, with a sigh, "for my son and I
are still too sad to care to go much into company, and we should not
have been here this evening but for a special request of your consul,
who is an old and valued friend."

Mrs. Mencke colored vividly at this reply, and began to make excuses for
her own presence there; but Lady Cameron, with a disapproving glance
over her elegant and showy costume, only b