as though there were something there on which it might be worth her while to allow her eyes to rest.  When such innuendoes were abroad, no one would probably make more of them than Lady de Courcy.  Many, when they heard that Mr Palliser was to be at the castle, had expressed their surprise at her success in that quarter.  Others, when they learned that Lady Dumbello had consented to become her guest, had also wondered greatly.  But when it was ascertained that the two were to be there together, her good-natured friends had acknowledged that she was a very clever woman.  To have either Mr Palliser or Lady Dumbello would have been a feather in her cap; but to succeed in getting both, by enabling each to know that the other would be there, was indeed a triumph.  As regards Lady Dumbello, however, the bargain was not fairly carried out; for, after all, Mr Palliser came to Courcy Castle only for two nights and a day, and during the whole of that day he was closeted with sundry large blue-books.  As for Lady de Courcy, she did not care how he might be employed.  Blue-books and Lady Dumbello were all the same to her.  Mr Palliser had been at Courcy Castle, and neither enemy nor friend could deny the fact.

This was his second evening; and as he had promised to meet his constituents at Silverbridge at one P.M. on the following day, with the view of explaining to them his own conduct and the political position of the world in general; and as he was not to return from Silverbridge to Courcy, Lady Dumbello, if she made any way at all, must take advantage of the short gleam of sunshine which the present hour afforded her.  No one, however, could say that she showed any active disposition to monopolise Mr Palliser’s attention.  When he sauntered into the drawing-room she was sitting, alone, in a large, low chair, made without arms, so as to admit the full expansion of her dress, but hollowed and round at the back, so as to afford her the support that was necessary to her.  She had barely spoken three words since she had left the dining-room, but the time had not passed heavily with her.  Lady Julia had again attacked the countess about Lily Dale and Mr Crosbie, and Alexandrina, driven almost to rage, had stalked off to the farther end of the room, not concealing her special concern in the matter.

“How I do wish they were married and done with,” said the countess; “and then we should hear no more about them.”

All of which Lady Dumbello heard and understood; and in all of it she took a certain interest.  She remembered such things, learning thereby who was who, and regulating her own conduct by what she learned.  She was by no means idle at this or at other such times, going through, we may say, a considerable amount of really hard work in her manner of working.  There she had sat speechless, unless when acknowledging by a low word of assent some expression of flattery from those around her.  Then the door opened, and when Mr Palliser entered she raised her head, and the faintest possible gleam of satisfaction might have been discerned upon her features.  But she made no attempt to speak to him; and when, as he stood at the table, he took up a book and remained thus standing for a quarter of an hour, she neither showed nor felt any impatience.  After that Lord Dumbello came in, and he stood at the table without a book.  Even then Lady Dumbello felt no impatience.