Mrs. Lessingham displayed good nature in her intercourse with the Denyers.  She smiled in private, and of course breathed to Cecily a word of warning; but the family entertained her, and Madeline she came really to like.  With Mrs. Denyer she compared notes on the Italy of other days.

“A sad, sad change!” Mrs. Denyer was wont to sigh.  “All the poetry gone!  Think of Rome before 1870, and what it is now becoming.  One never looked for intellect in Italy—­living intellect, of course, I mean—­but natural poetry one did expect and find.  It is heart-breaking, this progress!  If it were not for my dear girls, I shouldn’t be here; they adore Italy—­of course, never having known it as it was.  And I am sure you must feel, as I do, Mrs. Lessingham, the miserable results of cheapened travel.  Oh, the people one sees at railway-stations, even meets in hotels, I am sorry to say, sometimes!  In a few years, I do believe, Genoa and Venice will strongly remind one of Margate.”

No echo of the cry of “Wolf!” ever sounded in Mrs. Denyer’s conversation when she spoke of her husband.  That Odysseus of commerce was always referred to as being concerned in enterprises of mysterious importance and magnitude; she would hint that he had political missions, naturally not to be spoken of in plain terms.  Mrs. Lessingham often wondered with a smile what the truth really was; she saw no reason for making conjectures of a disagreeable kind, but it was pretty clear to her that selfishness, idleness, and vanity were at the root of Mrs. Denyer’s character, and in a measure explained the position of the family.

During the last few days, Barbara had exhibited a revival of interest in the “place in Lincolnshire.”  Her experiments proved that it needed but a moderate ingenuity to make Mr. Musselwhite’s favourite topic practically inexhaustible.  The “place” itself having been sufficiently described, it was natural to inquire what other “places” were its neighbours, what were the characteristics of the nearest town, how long it took to drive from the “place” to the town, from the “place” to such another “place,” and so on.  Mr. Musselwhite was undisguisedly grateful for every remark or question that kept him talking at his ease.  It was always his dread lest a subject should be broached on which he could say nothing whatever—­ there were so many such!—­and as often as Barbara broke a silence without realizing his fear, he glanced at her with the gentlest and most amiable smile.  Never more than glanced; yet this did not seem to be the result of shyness; rather it indicated a lack of mental activity, of speculation, of interest in her as a human being.

One morning he lingered at the luncheon-table when nearly all the others had withdrawn, playing with crumbs, and doubtless shrinking from the ennui that lay before him until dinner-time.  Near him, Mrs. Denyer, Barbara, and Zillah were standing in conversation about some photographs that had this morning come by post.