“A play-house kind of affair, Dick, I assure you,—­all in the French style; gods and goddesses above your head, and very badly dressed nymphs all around, and his pedigree on every window, and his coat of arms on the very stairs.  I have the greatest satisfaction in treading upon them, I assure you.”

“Why do you take the trouble to go?  It can give you no pleasure.”

“Imagine the true state of things, Dick.  The duke is at court—­say he is holding the royal gold wash-basin; but in the very sunshine of King George’s smile, he is thinking, ’That snuffy old woman is lounging in my white and gilt satin chairs, and handling all my Chinese curiosities, and asking if every hideous Hindoo idol is a fresh likeness of me.’  I am always willing to take some trouble to give pleasure to the people I like; I will gladly go to any amount of trouble to annoy the people I hate as cordially as I hate my good, rich, noble son-in-law, the great Duke of Exmouth.”

“Will you play again?”

“No; I lost seventy pounds to-night.”

“I protest, grandmother, that such high stakes go not with amusement.  People come here, not for civility, but for the chance of money.”

“Very well, sir.  Money!  It is the only excuse for card-playing.  All the rest is sinning without temptation.  But, Dick, put on the black coat to preach in,—­why do they wear black to preach in?—­and I am not in a humour for a sermon.  Come to-morrow at one o’clock; we shall reach Julia’s before dinner.  And I dare say you want money to-night.  Here are the keys of my desk.  In the right-hand drawer are some rouleaus of fifty pounds each.  Take two.”

[Illustration:  She was softly singing to the drowsy child]

The weather, as Lady Capel said, was “so very Decemberish” that the roads were passably good, being frozen dry and hard; and on the evening of the third day Hyde came in sight of his home.  His heart warmed to the lonely place; and the few lights in its windows beckoned him far more pleasantly than the brilliant illuminations of Vauxhall or Almacks, or even the cold splendours of royal receptions.  He had given Katherine no warning of his visit—­partly because he had a superstitious feeling about talking of expected joys (he had noticed that when he did so they vanished beyond his grasp); partly because love, like destiny, loves surprises; and he wanted to see with his own eyes, and hear with his own ears, the glad tokens of her happy wonder.

So he rode his horse upon the turf, and, seeing a light in the stable, carried him there at once.  It was just about the hour of the evening meal, and the house was brighter than it would have been a little later.  The kitchen fire threw great lustres across the brick-paved yard; and the blinds in Katherine’s parlour were undrawn, and its fire and candle-light shone on the freshly laid tea-table, and the dark walls gleaming with bunches of holly and mistletoe.