Lady Maulevrier stretched out her left hand to him, and the young man bent over it and kissed it affectionately.  He felt really touched by her misfortunes, and was fonder of her than he had ever been before.  She had been somewhat hard with him in his boyhood, but she had always cared for his dignity and protected his interests:  and, after all, she was a noble old woman, a grandmother of whom a man might be justly proud.  He thought of the painted harridans, the bare-shouldered skeletons, whom some of his young friends were obliged to own in the same capacity, and he was thankful that he could reverence his father’s mother.

‘That is the best news I have heard for a long time, Maulevrier,’ said her ladyship graciously; ’better medicine for my nerves than any of Mr. Horton’s preparations.  If Mr. Hammond’s advice has influenced you to get rid of your stable I am deeply grateful to Mr. Hammond.’

Hammond smiled as he sipped his tea, sitting close to Mary’s tray, ready to fly to her assistance on the instant should the brazen kettle become troublesome.  It had a threatening way of hissing and bubbling over its spirit lamp.

‘Oh, you have no idea what a fellow Hammond is to lecture,’ answered Maulevrier.  ’He is a tremendous Radical, and he thinks that every young man in my position ought to be a reformer, and devote the greater part of his time and trouble to turning out the dirty corners of the world, upsetting those poor dear families who like to pig together in one room, ordering all the children off to school, marrying the fathers and mothers, thrusting himself between free labour and free beer, and interfering with the liberty of the subject in every direction.’

’All that may sound like Radicalism, but I think it is the true Conservatism, and that every young man ought to do as much, if he wants this timeworn old country to maintain its power and prosperity,’ answered Lady Maulevrier, with an approving glance at John Hammond’s thoughtful face.

‘Right you are, grandmother,’ returned Maulevrier, ’and I believe Hammond calls himself a Conservative, and means to vote with the Conservatives.’

Means to vote!  An idle phrase, surely, thought her ladyship, where the young man’s chance of getting into Parliament was so remote.

That afternoon tea in Lady Maulevrier’s room was almost as cheerful as the tea-drinkings in the drawing-room, unrestrained by her ladyship’s presence.  She was pleased with her grandson’s conduct, and was therefore inclined to be friendly to his friend.  She could see an improvement in Mary, too.  The girl was more feminine, more subdued, graver, sweeter; more like that ideal woman of Wordsworth’s, whose image embodies all that is purest and fairest in womanhood.