Emily Fox-Seton, who by that time was comfortably seated in a cushioned basket-chair, sipping her own cup of tea, gave him the benefit of the doubt when she wondered if he was not really distinguished and aristocratic-looking.  He was really neither, but was well-built and well-dressed, and had good grayish-brown eyes, about the colour of his grayish-brown hair.  Among these amiably worldly people, who were not in the least moved by an altruistic prompting, Emily’s greatest capital consisted in the fact that she did not expect to be taken the least notice of.  She was not aware that it was her capital, because the fact was so wholly a part of the simple contentedness of her nature that she had not thought about it at all.  The truth was that she found all her entertainment and occupation in being an audience or a spectator.  It did not occur to her to notice that, when the guests were presented to him, Lord Walderhurst barely glanced at her surface as he bowed, and could scarcely be said to forget her existence the next second, because he had hardly gone to the length of recognising it.  As she enjoyed her extremely nice cup of tea and little buttered scone, she also enjoyed looking at his Lordship discreetly, and trying to make an innocent summing up of his mental attitudes.

Lady Maria seemed to like him and to be pleased to see him.  He himself seemed, in an undemonstrative way, to like Lady Maria.  He also was evidently glad to get his tea, and enjoyed it as he sat at his cousin’s side.  He did not pay very much attention to any one else.  Emily was slightly disappointed to see that he did not glance at the beauty and the Borzoi more than twice, and then that his examination seemed as much for the Borzoi as for the beauty.  She could not help also observing that since he had joined the circle it had become more animated, so far at least as the female members were concerned.  She could not help remembering Lady Maria’s remark about the effect he produced on women when he entered a room.  Several interesting or sparkling speeches had already been made.  There was a little more laughter and chattiness, which somehow it seemed to be quite open to Lord Walderhurst to enjoy, though it was not exactly addressed to him.  Miss Cora Brooke, however, devoted herself to a young man in white flannels with an air of tennis about him.  She sat a little apart and talked to him in a voice soft enough to even exclude Lord Walderhurst.  Presently she and her companion got up and sauntered away.  They went down the broad flight of ancient stone steps which led to the tennis-court, lying in full view below the lawn.  There they began to play tennis.  Miss Brooke skimmed and darted about like a swallow.  The swirl of her lace petticoats was most attractive.

“That girl ought not to play tennis in shoes with ridiculous heels,” remarked Lord Walderhurst.  “She will spoil the court.”

Lady Maria broke into a little chuckle.