‘He told me that he is acquainted with the family,’ said Lady Rowley.  ’He is staying at our hotel, and my daughter knew him very well when he was living in London.’

’I dare say.  I believe that in London the titled aristocrats do hang pretty much together.’  It had never occurred to poor Lady Rowley, since the day in which her husband had been made a knight, at the advice of the Colonial Minister, in order that the inhabitants of some island might be gratified by the opportunity of using the title, that she and her children had thereby become aristocrats.  Were her daughter Nora to marry Mr Glascock, Nora would become an aristocrat or would, rather, be ennobled, all which Lady Rowley understood perfectly.

‘I don’t know that London society is very exclusive in that respect,’ said Lady Rowley.

‘I guess you are pretty particular,’ said Miss Petrie, ’and it seems to me you don’t have much regard to intellect or erudition but fix things up straight according to birth and money.’

‘I hope we are not quite so bad as that,’ said Lady Rowley.  ’I do not know London well myself, as I have passed my life in very distant places.’

’The distant places are, in my estimation, the best.  The further the mind is removed from the contamination incidental to the centres of long-established luxury, the more chance it has of developing itself according to the intention of the Creator, when he bestowed his gifts of intellect upon us.’  Lady Rowley, when she heard this eloquence, could hardly believe that such a man as Mr Glascock should really be intent upon marrying such a lady as this who was sitting next to her.

In the meantime, Nora and the real rival were together, and they also were talking of Mr Glascock.  Caroline Spalding had said that Mr Glascock had spoken to her of Nora Rowley, and Nora acknowledged that there had been some acquaintance between them in London.  ’Almost more than that, I should have thought,’ said Miss Spalding, ’if one might judge by his manner of speaking of you.’

‘He is a little given to be enthusiastic,’ said Nora, laughing.

’The least so of all mankind, I should have said.  You must know he is very intimate in this house.  It begun in this way.  Olivia and I were travelling together, and there was a difficulty, as we say in our country when three or four gentlemen shoot each other.  Then there came up Mr Glascock and another gentleman.  By-the-bye, the other gentleman was your brother-in-law.’

‘Poor Mr Trevelyan!’

‘He is very ill, is he not?’

’We think so.  My sister is with us, you know.  That is to say, she is at Siena today.’

’I have heard about him, and it is so sad.  Mr Glascock knows him.  As I said, they were travelling together, when Mr Glascock came to our assistance.  Since that, we have seen him very frequently.  I don’t think he is enthusiastic except when he talks of you.’