‘Don’t you know who she is?’ said Cecilia; ’that is your neighbour, Mrs. Lawler.’

’Oh! is it really?  I have been so long at school that I know nobody—­I have been anxious to see her.  Why, I wonder, do people speak of her so mysteriously?’

‘You must have heard that she isn’t visited?’

’Well, yes; but I didn’t quite understand.  Your father was saying something the other day about Mr. Lawler’s shooting-parties; then mamma looked at him; he laughed and spoke of “les colombes de Cythere." I intended to ask mamma what he meant, but somehow I forgot.’

‘She was one of those women that walk about the streets by night.’

‘Oh! really!’ said Alice; and the conversation came to a sudden pause.  They had never spoken upon such a subject before, and the presence of the deformed girl rendered it a doubly painful one.  In her embarrassment, Alice said: 

‘Then I wonder Mr. Lawler married her.  Was it his fault that—­’

‘Oh!  I don’t think so,’ Cecilia replied, scornfully:  ’but what does it matter?—­she was quite good enough for him.’

At every moment a new Cecilia was revealing herself, the existence of whom Alice had not even suspected in the old; and as she hurried home she wondered if the minds of the other girls were the same as they were at school.  Olive?  She could see but little change in her sister; and May she had scarcely spoken to since they left school; Violet she hadn’t met since they parted at Athenry for their different homes.  But Cecilia—­She entered the house still thinking of her, and heard Olive telling her mother that Captain Hibbert had admired her new hat.

‘He told me that I’d be the handsomest girl at the Drawing-Room.’

‘And what did you say, dear?’

‘I asked him how he knew.  Was that right?’

‘Quite right; and what did he say then?’

’He said, because he had never seen anybody so handsome, and as he had seen everybody in London, he supposed—­I forget the exact words, but they were very nice; I am sure he admired my new hat; but you—­you haven’t told me how you liked it.  Do you think I should wear it down on my eyes, or a bit back?’

’I think it very becoming as it is; but tell me more about Captain Hibbert.’

’He told me he was coming to meet us at Mass.  You know he is a Roman Catholic?’

‘I know he is, dear, and am very glad.’

‘If he weren’t, he wouldn’t be able to meet us at Mass.’

VIII

According to old-established custom, on the arrival of his family Arthur had turned his nudities to the wall, and now sitting, one leg tucked under him, on the sofa, throwing back from time to time his long blond locks, he hummed an Italian air.

’How tired you look, Alice dear!  Will you have a cup of tea?  It will freshen you up; you have been walking yourself to death.’