The mother’s heart all went out towards him; the mother’s eyes moistened as she looked.

The couple in the conservatory were alone.  A Chinese lantern, swung high up above, shed down a soft radiance upon them.  Tall camellia bushes, covered with waxen blossoms and cool shiny leaves, were behind them; banks of long-fronded, feathery ferns framed them in like a picture.  Maurice’s handsome figure stood up tall and strong amongst the greenery; the dress of the woman he was with lay in soft diaphanous folds upon the ground beyond him.  One white arm rested on her lap, one tiny foot peeped out from below the laces of her skirt.  But Lady Kynaston could not see her face.

“I wonder who she is,” she said to herself.  “It is not Helen.  She has peacock’s feathers on her dress—­bad luck, I believe!  Dear boy, he looks thoroughly happy.  I will not disturb him now.”

And she passed on through the hall into the large drawing-room, where the dancing was going on.

The first person she caught sight of there was her eldest son.  He was dancing a quadrille, and his partner was a short young lady in a strawberry-coloured tulle dress, covered with trails of spinach-green fern leaves.  This young person had a round, chubby face, with bright apple-hued cheeks, a dark, bullet-shaped head, and round, bead-like eyes that glanced about her rapidly like those of a frightened dickey-bird.  Her dress was cut very low, and the charms she exhibited were not captivating.  Her arms were very red, and her shoulders were mottled:  the latter is considered to be a healthy sign in a baby, but is hardly a beautiful characteristic in a grown woman.

“That is my daughter-in-law,” said Lady Kynaston to herself, and she almost groaned aloud.  “She is worse even than I thought!  Countrified and common to the last degree; there will be no licking that face or that figure into shape—­they are hopeless!  Elise and Worth combined could do nothing with her!  John must be mad.  No wonder she is good, poor thing,” added the naughty little old lady, cynically.  “A woman with that appearance can never be tempted to be anything else!”

The quadrille came to an end, and Sir John, after depositing his partner at the further side of the room, came up to his mother.

“My dear mother, how are you?  I am so sorry about your journey; you must be dead beat.  What a fool Bates was to make such a mistake.”  He was looking about the room as he spoke.  “I must introduce you to Vera.”

“Yes, introduce me to her at once,” said his mother, in a resigned and depressed tone of voice.  She would like to have added, “And pray get it over as soon as you can.”  What she did say was only, “Bring her up to me now.  The young lady you have just been dancing with, I suppose!”

“What!” cried Sir John, and burst out laughing.  “Good Heavens, mother! that was Miss Smiles, the daughter of the parson of Lutterton.  You don’t mean to say you thought a little ugly chit like that was my Vera!”