‘You are Lady Harriet’s visitor, my dear,’ said she, ’and I hope she will take good care of you.  If not, come and complain of her to me.’  It was as near an approach to a joke as Lady Cumnor ever perpetrated, and from it Lady Harriet knew that her mother was pleased by Molly’s manners and appearance.

’Now, here you are in your own kingdom; and into this room I shan’t venture to come without express permission.  Here is the last new Quarterly, and the last new novel, and the last new essays.  Now, my dear, you need not come down again to-day unless you like it.  Parkes shall bring you everything and anything you want.  You must get strong as fast as you can, for all sorts of great and famous people are coming to-morrow and the next day, and I think you’ll like to see them.  Suppose for to-day you only come down to lunch, and if you like it, in the evening.  Dinner is such a wearily long meal, if one is not strong; and you would not miss much, for there is only my cousin Charles in the house now, and he is the personification of sensible silence.’

Molly was only too glad to allow Lady Harriet to decide everything for her.  It had begun to rain, and was, altogether, a gloomy day for August; and there was a small fire of scented wood burning cheerfully in the sitting-room appropriated to her.  High up, it commanded a wide and pleasant view over the park, and from it could be seen the spire of Hollingford Church, which gave Molly a pleasant idea of neighbourhood to home.  She was left alone, lying on the sofa—­books near her, wood crackling and blazing, wafts of wind bringing the beating rain against the window, and so enhancing the sense of indoor comfort by the outdoor contrast.  Parkes was unpacking for her.  Lady Harriet had introduced Parkes to Molly by saying, ’Now, Molly, this is Mrs. Parkes, the only person I ever am afraid of.  She scolds me if I dirty myself with my paints, just as if I was a little child; and she makes me go to bed when I want to sit up,’—­Parkes was smiling grimly all the time;—­’so to get rid of her tyranny I give her you as victim.  Parkes, rule over Miss Gibson with a rod of iron; make her eat and drink, and rest and sleep, and dress as you think wisest and best.’

Parkes had begun her reign by putting Molly on the sofa, and saying, ’If you will give me your keys, Miss, I will unpack your things, and let you know when it is time for me to arrange your hair, preparatory to luncheon.’  For if Lady Harriet used familiar colloquialisms from time to time, she certainly had not learnt it from Parkes, who piqued herself on the correctness of her language.

When Molly went down to lunch she found ‘cousin Charles,’ with his aunt, Lady Cumnor.  He was a certain Sir Charles Morton, the son of Lady Cumnor’s only sister:  a plain, sandy-haired man of thirty-five or so; immensely rich, very sensible, awkward, and reserved.  He had had a chronic attachment, of many years’ standing, to his cousin, Lady Harriet, who did not care for him in the least, although it was the marriage very earnestly desired for her by her mother.  Lady Harriet was, however, on friendly terms with him, ordered him about, and told him what to do, and what to leave undone, without having even a doubt as to the willingness of his obedience.  She had given him his cue about Molly.