“I suppose,” said Emily, “that he was very much in love with his first wife and will never marry again.”

“He wasn’t in love with her any more than he was in love with his housemaid.  He knew he must marry, and thought it very annoying.  As the child died, I believe he thinks it his duty to marry again.  But he hates it.  He’s rather dull, and he can’t bear women fussing about and wanting to be made love to.”

They went over the visiting-book and discussed people and dates seriously.  The list was made and the notes written before Emily left the house.  It was not until she had got up and was buttoning her coat that Lady Maria bestowed her boon.

“Emily,” she said, “I am going to ask you to Mallowe on the 2d.  I want you to help me to take care of people and keep them from boring me and one another, though I don’t mind their boring one another half so much as I mind their boring me.  I want to be able to go off and take my nap at any hour I choose.  I will not entertain people.  What you can do is to lead them off to gather things of look at church towers.  I hope you’ll come.”

Emily Fox-Seton’s face flushed rosily, and her eyes opened and sparkled.

“O Lady Maria, you are kind!” she said.  “You know how I should enjoy it.  I have heard so much of Mallowe.  Every one says it is so beautiful and that there are no such gardens in England.”

“They are good gardens.  My husband was rather mad about roses.  The best train for you to take is the 2:30 from Paddington.  That will bring you to the Court just in time for tea on the lawn.”

Emily could have kissed Lady Maria if they had been on the terms which lead people to make demonstrations of affection.  But she would have been quite as likely to kiss the butler when he bent over her at dinner and murmured in dignified confidence, “Port or sherry, miss?” Bibsworth would have been no more astonished than Lady Maria would, and Bibsworth certainly would have expired of disgust and horror.

She was so happy when she hailed the twopenny bus that when she got into it her face was beaming with the delight which adds freshness and good looks to any woman.  To think that such good luck had come to her!  To think of leaving her hot little room behind her and going as a guest to one of the most beautiful old houses in England!  How delightful it would be to live for a while quite naturally the life the fortunate people lived year after year—­to be a part of the beautiful order and picturesqueness and dignity of it!  To sleep in a lovely bedroom, to be called in the morning by a perfect housemaid, to have one’s early tea served in a delicate cup, and to listen as one drank it to the birds singing in the trees in the park!  She had an ingenuous appreciation of the simplest material joys, and the fact that she would wear her nicest clothes every day, and dress for dinner every evening, was a delightful thing to reflect upon.  She got so much more out of life than most people, though she was not aware of it.