’I am glad to hear that; for I really think the worst possible use a woman can make of her life is in wasting it on lamentation for a dead and gone husband.  Life is odiously short at the best, and it is mere imbecility to fritter away any of our scanty portion upon the dead, who can never be any the better for our tears.’

’My motive in living at Fellside was not reverence for the dead.  And now let us talk of the gay world, of which you know all the secrets.  Have you heard anything more about Lord Hartfield?’

’Ah, there is a subject in which you have reason to be interested.  I have not forgotten the romance of your youth—­that first season in which Ronald Hollister used to haunt every place at which you appeared.  Do you remember that wet afternoon at the Chiswick flower-show, when you and he and I took shelter in the orange house, and you two made love to each other most audaciously in an atmosphere of orange-blossoms that almost stifled me?  Yes, those were glorious days!’

‘A short summer of gladness, a brief dream,’ sighed Lady Maulevrier.  ’Is young Lord Hartfield like his father?’

’No, he takes after the Ilmingtons; but still there is a look of your old sweetheart—­yes, I think there is an expression.  I have not seen him for nearly a year.  He is still abroad, roaming about somewhere in search of adventures.  These young men who belong to the Geographical and the Alpine Club are hardly ever at home.’

’But though they may be sometimes lost to society, they are all the more worthy of society’s esteem when they do appear,’ said Lady Maulevrier.  ’I think there must be an ennobling influence in Alpine travel, or in the vast solitudes of the Dark Continent.  A man finds himself face to face with unsophisticated nature, and with the grandest forces of the universe.  Professor Tyndall writes delightfully of his Alpine experiences; his mind seems to have ripened in the solitude and untainted air of the Alps.  And I believe Lord Hartfield is a young man of very high character and of considerable cultivation, is he not?’

’He is a splendid young fellow.  I never heard a word to his disparagement, even from those people who pretend to know something bad about everybody.  What a husband he would make for one of your girls!’

’Admirable!  But those perfect arrangements, which seem predestined by heaven itself, are so rarely realised on earth,’ answered the dowager, lightly.

She was not going to show her cards, even to an old friend.

’Well, it would be very sweet if they were to meet next season and fall in love with each other,’ said Lady Kirkbank.  ’He is enormously rich, and I daresay your girls will not be portionless.’

‘Lesbia may take a modest place among heiresses,’ answered Lady Maulevrier.  ’I have lived so quietly during the last forty years that I could hardly help saving money.’

‘How nice!’ sighed Georgie.  ’I never saved sixpence in my life, and am always in debt.’