Victor alluded at night to Mrs. John Cormyn’s absence.  He said:  ’A homoeopathic doctor’s wife!’ nothing more; and by that little, he prepared Nesta for her mother’s explanation.  The great London people, ignorant or not, were caught by the strong tide he created, and carried on it.  But there was a bruiting of the secret among their set; and the one to fall away from her, Nataly marvellingly named Mrs. John Cormyn; whose marriage was of her making.  She did not disapprove Priscilla’s behaviour.  Priscilla had come to her and, protesting affection, had openly stated, that she required time and retirement to recover her proper feelings.  Nataly smiled a melancholy criticism of an inconsequent or capricious woman, in relating to Nesta certain observations Priscilla had dropped upon poor faithful Mr. Pempton, because of his concealment from her of his knowledge of things for this faithful gentleman had been one of the few not ignorant.  The rumour was traceable to the City.

‘Mother, we walk on planks,’ Nesta said.

Nataly answered:  ‘You will grow used to it.’

Her mother’s habitual serenity in martyrdom was deceiving.  Nesta had a transient suspicion, that she had grown, from use, to like the whirl of company, for oblivion in the excitement; and as her remembrance of her own station among the crowding people was a hot flush, the difference of their feelings chilled her.

Nataly said:  ‘It is to-morrow night again; we do not rest.’  She smiled; and at once the girl read woman’s armour on the dear face, and asked herself, Could I be so brave?  The question following was a speechless wave, that surged at her father.  She tried to fathom the scheme he entertained.  The attempt obscured her conception of the man he was.  She could not grasp him, being too young for knowing, that young heads cannot obtain a critical hold upon one whom they see grandly succeeding it is the sun’s brilliance to their eyes.

Mother and daughter slept together that night, and their embrace was their world.

Nesta delighted her father the next day by walking beside him into the, City, as far as the end of the Embankment, where the carriage was in waiting with her maid to bring her back; and at his mere ejaculation of a wish, the hardy girl drove down in the afternoon for the walk home with him.  Lady Grace Halley was at the office.  ’I’m an incorrigible Stock Exchange gambler,’ she said.

‘Only,’ Victor bade her beware, ’Mines are undulating in movement, and their heights are a preparation for their going down.’

She said she ‘liked a swing.’

Nesta looked at them in turn.

The day after and the day after, Lady Grace was present.  She made play with Dudley’s name.