Although they were not congenial companions Douglas faithfully accompanied his mother in her varied wanderings, supported her in action with enraged landladies, helped her out of a libel case, covered her reverses and retreats, and lived by command under the same roof.

For the last eighteen months the pair had been established at a well-managed private hotel in Lincoln Square, Bayswater, W.  “Malahide” was a flourishing concern; two substantial houses had been thrown into one; the rooms were spacious, clean, and adequately furnished; the food was plain but abundant.  The double drawing-room contained a fine piano, one or two sofas, and card tables; also a sufficiency of sound and reliable chairs; but not an ornament, save two clocks—­not one paper fan, nor bunch of coloured grasses, nor a single antimacassar, not even a shell!  Such amazing restraint gave the apartments an empty but dignified appearance.

Among its various advantages, “Malahide” was within a few minutes’ walk of “the Grove,” and “Underground,” a situation which appealed to men in business and to women whose chief occupation was shopping.

Mrs. Shafto appreciated her present quarters for several excellent reasons.  Here she had no giggling young rivals and was, even at forty-five, the best-looking and best-dressed of all the lady boarders.  Moreover, she had found a friend and admirer in her neighbour at meals—­a certain Mr. Manasseh Levison, a widower, with a stout figure, a somewhat fleshy nose, and a pair of fine piercing black eyes.  He was the proprietor of a fashionable and flourishing antiquities and furniture business in a well-known thoroughfare, and was considered one of the best judges of old silver and china in the trade.

It exasperated Shafto to listen to his mother’s “table talk,” and he made a point of sitting as far as possible from her vicinity.  She liked to impress Levison and other with highly-coloured reminiscences of her grand acquaintances; even the Tremenheeres—­with whom she had quarrelled so bitterly—­were dragged in and shown off as intimates.  More than once Shafto had felt his face burn, as exaggerations and glorifications were unfolded in his parent’s far-carrying and assertive treble.

Besides Mr. Manasseh Levison, were the two Misses Smith—­twins—­genteel, middle-aged spinsters, who, until the arrival of the sprightly and attractive widow, had alternately cherished high hopes of the wealthy Jew.  Their chief energies were devoted to the task of blowing one another’s trumpets, thereby drawing attention to particular virtues and modestly hidden accomplishments.  For example, the elder would say: 

“Darling Ella is so clever at cooking, as good as any French chef, her sauces and savouries are too wonderful.”

They were!

And Ella, in repayment, assured her listeners that Jessie had a perfect genius for gardening and housekeeping; and yet it was whispered that this effusively fond couple, when alone, quarrelled and wrangled as cruelly as the notorious Kilkenny cats.