After dinner, she ordered her carriage.  Then, thinking that it might be recognized by Mr. Belcher, she changed her order, and sent to a public stable for one that was not identified with herself; and then, so disguising her person that in the evening she would not be known, she ordered the driver to take her to Mr. Balfour’s.

Mrs. Dillingham had met Mr. Balfour many times, but she had never, though on speaking terms with her, cultivated Mrs. Balfour’s acquaintance, and that lady did not fail to show the surprise she felt when her visitor was announced.

“I have made the acquaintance of your little ward,” said Mrs. Dillingham, “and we have become good friends.  I enticed him into my house to-day, and as I kept him a long time, I thought I would come over and apologize for his absence.”

“I did not know that he had been with you,” said Mrs. Balfour, coolly.

“He could do no less than come to me when I asked him to do so,” said Mrs. Dillingham; “and I was entirely to blame for his remaining with me so long.  You ladies who have children cannot know how sweet their society sometimes is to those who have none.”

Mrs. Balfour was surprised.  She saw in her visitor’s eyes the evidence of recent tears, and there was a moisture in them then, and a subdued and tender tone to her voice which did not harmonize at all with her conception of Mrs. Dillingham’s nature and character.  Was she trying her arts upon her?  She knew of her intimacy with Mr. Belcher, and naturally connected the visit with that unscrupulous person’s schemes.

Mrs. Balfour was soon relieved by the entrance of her husband, who greeted Mrs. Dillingham in the old, stereotyped, gallant way in which gentlemen were accustomed to address her.  How did she manage to keep herself so young?  Would she be kind enough to give Mrs. Balfour the name of her hair-dresser?  What waters had she bathed in, what airs had she breathed, that youth should clothe her in such immortal fashion?

Quite to his surprise, Mrs. Dillingham had nothing to say to this badinage.  She seemed either not to hear it at all, or to hear it with impatience.  She talked in a listless way, and appeared to be thinking of anything but what was said.

At last, she asked Mr. Balfour if she could have the liberty to obtrude a matter of business upon him.  She did not like to interfere with his home enjoyments, but he would oblige her much by giving her half an hour of private conversation.  Mr. Balfour looked at his wife, received a significant glance, and invited the lady into his library.

It was a long interview.  Nine o’clock, ten o’clock, eleven o’clock sounded, and then Mrs. Balfour went upstairs.  It was nearly midnight when Mrs. Dillingham emerged from the door.  She handed a bank-note to the impatient coachman, and ordered him to drive her home.  As she passed Mr. Belcher’s corner of the street, she saw Phipps helping his master to mount the steps.  He had had an evening of carousal among some of his new acquaintances.  “Brute!” she said to herself, and withdrew her head from the window.