"my dear kate, what a perfect paradise of a place you have here!" said lady henmarsh to her young hostess, when, having made a tour of inspection of the house, the two ladies found themselves alone in katharine's morning-room. "i had no notion mr. streightley meant to méner grand train after this fashion. you are a fortunate girl, kate, and i hope you understand and appreciate your luck."

lady henmarsh spoke with the accent of strong conviction, and looked around her approvingly as she did so. she and sir timothy had arrived by a midday train from london: the first hours after their arrival had been passed in the manner usual on similar occasions,--in seeing the house, dawdling about the gardens, and inspecting the hothouses; and now the moment had arrived which katharine and her guest had each felt disposed to defer as long as possible--that of a tête-à-tête, in which the discussion of the past and present must necessarily have its place.

katharine was standing by a window which opened like a door upon a small perfectly-kept flower-garden, and looking musingly out upon the fair expanse of park and woodland which stretched away into the distance. lady henmarsh was looking at her with more curious scrutiny than she had ventured to indulge in in the presence of others; and the result of her examination was, that katharine was more beautiful than ever. the assured demeanour, the perfect gracefulness, the lofty ease of manner, which had been perhaps a little too pronounced in the girl, were perfectly in their place as attributes of the young matron, who did the honours of her splendid house with faultless elegance and aplomb. the taste and richness of her dress, the judicious assortment of her ornaments, the air of dignity and calm which dwelt about her, made her indeed a being to be regarded with almost wondering admiration. and lady henmarsh admired and wondered--wondered how she liked it all; wondered how she and robert got on together; whether he was afraid of katharine (she put the question to herself in just such plain words),--thought it very likely, all things considered; wondered whether katharine ever heard of gordon frere, and what she thought of him if she did; and finally wondered whether she might venture to question her on these points: but while the thought passed through her mind the answer passed through it also, and lady henmarsh knew perfectly well that she would never dare to mention frere's name to mrs. streightley.

"this room is perfectly exquisite," lady henmarsh began again; "and i suppose you keep it strictly to yourself; that you give audience here, queen of middlemeads, when it suits you; but shut out the profane vulgar,--eh, kate?"

"yes," answered katharine carelessly; "it is a pretty room, and i use it a great deal,--that is to say, ellen and i."

"ellen and you!" repeated lady henmarsh with profound astonishment. "you don't mean to tell me, katharine, that you have really taken to be intimate with that uninteresting creature--that sheep-like young lady, the veriest type of the most detestable class of society girls that i have ever encountered! a silly, pious, underbred girl, engaged to a vulgar missionary preacher! really you amaze me, kate. perhaps," she said, with a covert glance at katharine, and a strong effort to be perfectly familiar and natural, dictated by an instinctive feeling that she had lost ground with one whom she had formerly influenced--"perhaps you are doing the model wife, acting on the 'love-me-love-my-dog' principle, and cultivating this very modest flower for her brother's sake. if so, i admire you for it, katharine. i am glad to see you have a due sense of the value of 'thorough' in you; there is no more precious quality; but i confess i did not expect it."

katharine had fixed her large bright eyes upon lady henmarsh at the beginning of this speech with an expression of cold surprise, which succeeded in making the speaker feel very uncomfortable before she reached the end of it. a few moments elapsed before katharine answered gravely:

"miss streightley is a person whom i like and esteem. i fear i shall never imitate her good qualities; but i am glad to know that i have at least the grace to admire them. of course, as mr. streightley's sister, i should have shown her every attention; but such a duty soon became a pleasure."

katharine spoke in a cold and dignified tone, which produced an exceedingly unpleasant effect upon lady henmarsh, whose face assumed a certain comical expression, suggestive of an instantly-repressed inclination to whistle. her feeling towards katharine had always hovered on the borders of dislike; but from the present moment it crossed them, and she never tried to deceive herself more about its nature. she had been a party to the wound inflicted upon the pride of this haughty woman; she had witnessed her suffering, had spoken to her of her humiliation, had had cognisance of the "transaction" of this marriage; and katharine would never forgive her. in her she would find a polished, hospitable, and attentive hostess, observant of every social duty, and resolute against every attempt on her part to reestablish an intimacy which had never been more than superficial and of convenience. lady henmarsh perceived the state of the case clearly; but as she had no feelings to be hurt in the matter, she took very kindly to a hearty dislike of katharine.

"it is a comfort to know that ned has got what he wanted, at all events," she thought, as she looked at the moody frown which had come over katharine's countenance as she spoke the last sentences; "and if she's fool enough to filer le parfait amour with this city lout and all his kin, or hypocrite enough to pretend to do so, so much the better,--things will be easier for ned, and that's the main point."

but lady henmarsh said aloud, and with the most perfect suavity,

"my dear katharine, you are surely not so silly as to suppose i blame you for any attention to mr. streightley's sister. i daresay i shall like her very much when i know her better; and i'm sure it's quite charming to find you getting on so admirably with your people-in-law. and now, i think, having seen as much of your beautiful house as i can manage for to-day, i will disappear until dinner-time. i must look after sir timothy. thank you, dear; i know my way to my rooms. how delightfully you have chosen for me, kate! just the situation and aspect i like best. sir timothy is perfectly charmed."

lady henmarsh, safely secluded within her own apartment, proceeded to indite a piquant epistle to her "cousin ned," in which she painted the streightley ménage in colours highly agreeable to that gentleman's feelings, and indulged herself with some of the ridicule of ellen and her brother, whose flow had been so peremptorily arrested by katharine. she knew that it would be rather agreeable than otherwise to mr. guyon to be told, on the authority of an eye-witness, that his daughter was perfectly happy; so she gave him that pleasant assurance, inquired affectionately when he proposed coming to witness the felicity of middlemeads in person, and hinted that his presence would add considerably to the attractions of that sojourn in her own estimation.

robert's reception of sir timothy and lady henmarsh had been all that the most exacting guests could desire. the poor fellow felt unbounded gratitude towards lady henmarsh, who had, as he said to himself, "always been his friend,"--gratitude which it was a pleasure and a relief to him to feel,--gratitude which he could not extend to mr. guyon,--no; he was an accomplice, not a friend; and the tie between them was, one of pain, which made itself felt, and of shame, to which no effort, no triumph, could render him insensible. he was totally ignorant of lady henmarsh's complicity in mr. guyon's manoeuvres; he knew only that he had received the warmest welcome from her when his pretensions were announced; that she had appeared to regard his marriage as all that it should be; and even now that the prize was won, the treasure he had paid so high a price for all his own, he attached an unreasonable importance to lady henmarsh's presence, to her approbation. he did not say so in plain terms to himself; but he felt that she would support his cause with katharine, that she would lend him additional importance. in the timidity of his sore conscience, he felt that it was a great thing to be strengthened by the presence of a person unconscious and unsuspicious of the means by which his success had been effected, and who had welcomed it on its own merits. so little did he understand his wife's proud isolation of heart, that he mistook her courtesy to her guest for respect for her opinion, and looked to lady henmarsh's aid in gaining katharine's heart as ardently as he had hailed her support in his suit for her hand.

the truth was just the opposite of that which robert believed it to be. from the moment lady henmarsh arrived at middlemeads, katharine's mood underwent a change unfavourable to the prospect of domestic happiness which had begun to dawn upon her. an atmosphere of heartlessness and worldliness surrounded this woman; and then she was associated in katharine's mind with all the bitterness and humiliation of the past. the pain, now grown almost old, began to revive again; the restlessness and weariness of spirit, the terrible anger, the unavailing self-contempt, which rendered katharine unapproachable to all, despite her suave and gracious manner, and especially to him who had afforded her the occasion to incur it. these feelings did not return in their intensity all at once; but their first approach to the invasion of katharine's heart was made when the girl perceived the hardly veiled contempt with which her ci-devant chaperone regarded her spontaneous effort to be good and happy. it needed little to turn the balance in which the fate of robert and katharine streightley hung at that moment, and lady henmarsh's disdainful touch did it. not directly--she had no direct influence with katharine now--but indirectly, by the pain of humiliating association, by the sudden revival of the old bitterness, and the sense that all this was but a sordid bargain after all. the evil leaven began its work when lady henmarsh left katharine, still standing by the window of her morning room, in the self-same attitude in which she had stood by the window in queen anne street, and watched in vain for the coming of gordon frere. she moved away at length, with a restless and impatient sigh, and went to seek for ellen.

ellen streightley had been rather frightened by lady henmarsh, whose rapid talk on a variety of subjects removed from ellen's comprehension and experience had oppressed her considerably. she had accordingly kept out of the way, since she had contrived to make her escape during the tour of inspection; and katharine ultimately discovered her in a quiet corner of the library, deeply engaged in the manufacture of an unspeakably hideous pair of embroidered slippers. she laid aside her work at katharine's approach, and they proceeded to discuss the time and manner of miss gould's expected arrival on the ensuing day, ellen losing herself in conjectures as to what katharine would think of hester, and what hester would think of katharine. she had most of the discourse to herself, and also enjoyed a secret satisfaction in the reflection that to-morrow she would have her friend--a more important person than lady henmarsh--too, to make a fuss about. she wondered how robert could like that woman so much, and be so deferential to her; she might be very grand and all that, but she had a way of making people feel small and uncomfortable, which was not like a real lady--not like dear katharine, for instance; however, there was one comfort, she could not put down hester.

"is miss gould likely to marry, ellen?" asked katharine in the course of their conversation. "it would be a terrible take-in for the fortune-hunters, you know, or rather you don't know, if the prize of the season were found to be already won."

ellen looked at her sister-in-law with the half-solemn, half-stupid gaze habitual to her when she was puzzled. katharine had never uttered any such banale sarcasm to her before; that she did so now was the first symptom of the evil influence that was upon her.

"no," said ellen slowly; "i do not think hester ever cared for any one; she gave all her mind, she used to say, to her work. but o, katharine, how nice it is to think that she can marry a man as poor as decimus now, if she likes!--that is the only thing that makes it worth while to be an heiress, is it not?"

"i am not sure of that, ellen," said katharine; "it is a great recommendation certainly, but heiress-ship has some other advantages too. but there's the first bell; let us go and make ourselves beautiful for sir timothy."

"and for robert, katharine," said ellen archly; "but you are always beautiful for him."

"ay, she may marry a poor man if she likes," thought robert's wife, as she sat before a long glass in her room, and looked at her beautiful face framed in the unbound masses of her glossy hair. "she may buy, instead of being bought--that's all the difference; the distinction is valuable, however."

* * * * *

robert streightley drove his sister to the station where he and yeldham had hired a trap on the occasion of their visit to middlemeads, to meet her friend on the day following lady henmarsh's arrival. the drive was a pleasant one, for ellen talked of katharine, with only occasional and brief interludes and digressions in favour of the absent missionary; and robert was ready to extend his sympathy to his sister to a degree which would have seemed incredible to him a short time before. he was very happy that day; his face showed the gladness that was at his heart, as it reflected the smile with which katharine had nodded a farewell to him and ellen, as the open carriage passed the window where she was standing with her little white dog in her arms. how bright and beautiful and girlish she looked! he thought; how truly she harmonised with all around her! surely she was happy now--happier than at first.

"there's the smoke, nelly; we are just in time," said robert; and in another minute they were on the platform, and ellen had caught sight of hester's dark eyes, with a smile of recognition in them, as the train came slowly up, and stopped. robert stood aside while the two women exchanged their greeting, after the manner characteristic of each; and during that brief interval he regarded hester with some interest and curiosity. he had not seen her since she had so unexpectedly inherited her uncle's wealth,--he had hardly thought of her; the old time in which they had been familiar, if not intimate, seemed very far past now; he had lived all of his life that had been worth living since then. it occurred to him now for the first time that it might be curious to see how this young woman had borne a transition which could hardly fail to be trying. in the first place, he recognised that hester gould was elegantly dressed. he had become skilful in such observation now; he who had not formerly had an idea on the subject, and could not have told whether his sister was attired in velvet or cotton; but his close attention to every thing in which katharine was concerned or interested, his ceaseless admiration of her, his keen perception of every thing which adorned the beauty which he worshipped, had educated his eyes, and he perceived at once that hester's toilette was perfect in its taste and appropriateness. nothing appeared in her which could annoy katharine's refined ideas; not the least touch of vulgarity, not the most transient embarrassment or pretension of manner, nothing to convey the smallest suggestion of the nouveau riche. with the same frank courtesy that she had displayed in their former relations miss gould received her host's welcome; with precisely the correct degree of interest she inquired for mrs. streightley; and with a totally unchanged manner she entered into conversation with ellen, during the necessary delay which took place while the servants were securing the luggage.

as they drove to middlemeads, robert talked with his guest of the country around, of the gentlemen's seats which they passed, of the buckinghamshire backwoods, and other topics appropriate to the occasion, but which had little interest for ellen, who was anxious to put one of her idols en rapport with the other as soon as possible. hester had said something very civil, and perfectly sincere, about the pleasure she anticipated from seeing middlemeads, and was listening attentively to robert's anecdotes of the historical importance of the place, when ellen said, in her peculiar interjectional fashion,

"o yes, it's all most delightful, and ever so grand, hester; so different, you know, to brighton and that, that i really should have been half afraid of it if it hadn't been for katharine. she is so delightful, you can't think, hester. i think she could make a cabin feel like a palace. i do so long for you to see her."

"you forget that i have already seen mrs. streightley several times, ellen; and i cannot believe that my admiration can be increased on better acquaintance."

robert looked delighted, but surprised; and was just about to speak, when ellen began again.

"yes, yes, i remember; you saw her at the famous fête--that fête which i shall always think, in spite of decimus, a most fortunate and praiseworthy piece of worldliness and dissipation, for there robert fell in love with katharine, and there i am sure katharine fell in love with him, though i have never got her to tell me any thing about it--i suppose it's not the correct thing among fashionable people to talk about falling in love!--and then you just had a glimpse of her on her wedding-day; but i mean i want you to see her constantly in her own house, and to admire her as we do."

"i could hardly venture to do that, ellen," said miss gould, in a tone which conveyed the lightest possible suggestion of ridicule of ellen's enthusiasm, and would, therefore, have betrayed to any one thoroughly acquainted with hester--supposing such an individual to exist--that her temper was momentarily disturbed. she was instantly conscious of the tone herself; and turning to robert with unaffected good-humour, she said:

"the occasions which ellen mentions were not the only ones on which i had the pleasure of seeing mrs. streightley. i think i know her by sight longer than you do."

"indeed! how was that?" asked robert rather eagerly, for every thing in the past, as in the present, which regarded katharine had a potent interest for him.

"i taught music to the miss morisons, who lived next door to mr. guyon, during two seasons," said hester simply; "and as they seized upon every conceivable opportunity for neglecting their lessons, they made it a point to rush to the windows to see miss guyon going out to ride, and i never could resist the temptation of looking out with them. i like to see a woman on horseback who looks and rides as she does. i am not sure that i did not envy the gay cavalcade sometimes, when i used to see them set off, and had to turn to 'one, two, three, four--pray attend to your fingering,' and so forth, again."

"you will have horses in town too, hester, won't you?" said ellen; "and have cavalcades on your own account, and gallant cavaliers to escort you, as katharine had?"

"i am not so sure of that," said hester demurely; "the morison girls, who were very slang, used to talk about miss guyon's escort being always the 'best' men in london; and there was a mr. frere--her cousin, is he not?--whom they used to admire almost as enthusiastically as they admired her. caroline, who was horribly silly, used to quote tennyson's 'guinevere' as they went by the windows: very appropriate to a london street, was it not?"

"look, look, hester!" said ellen, jumping up in the carriage, "there's the first glimpse of middlemeads;" and then the young lady occupied herself with pointing out every detail of the approach, until the carriage passed under the arch and drew up at the entrance, where katharine was standing in the open doorway, pleased to gratify her sister-in-law to the utmost by the demonstrative kindness of her reception of miss gould.

"we were in capital time, katharine," said ellen, as the three ladies passed through the hall, "and had a delightful drive, hadn't we, robert? o, he's gone off to the library, i suppose."

katharine was much pleased with hester gould, and the little party at middlemeads was apparently composed of the most harmonious elements. the great heiress was naturally an object of curiosity in that character; and katharine was no more slow than hester herself to perceive that her guest's presence lent an additional attraction in the eyes of the neighbourhood to the newly-mounted ménage at middlemeads. it was not every country-house which had two such specimens of womanhood to show,--the one so beautiful, the other so rich; and the neighbourhood proved itself not undeserving of its opportunities. lady henmarsh had experienced some not unnatural pangs of apprehension lest the dignified dulness which her soul abhorred should beset her at middlemeads. she had had her doubts about robert streightley's fitness for his new r?le in society; she had dreaded, she did not exactly know what, in katharine; but her apprehensions proved utterly unfounded. she did not care to look beneath the surface, and that was all that could be desired. mrs. streightley dispensed a splendid hospitality with perfect grace, and robert had no desire save that in all things her pleasure should be done. her pleasure was to fill her house with company, and to pass her life in a round of such amusements as were attainable in the country, previous to entering upon the london season with a brilliancy and splendour which should convince the world that she was one of the most fortunate persons in it, and leave herself no time to recur to any of the absurd fancies which had once beguiled her for a little. how absurd they were! she laughed at them now, and at herself; and yet the laugh was not entirely real. and sometimes she would think of hester gould's wealth with a dreadful pang of envy, but in which there was not an atom of sordid feeling.

hester gould turned every hour of her stay at middlemeads to account. she was incapable of such a blunder as copying any one's manner; but she studied the best types with which she was brought in contact, and profited by them. she knew exactly the extent and value of such personal attractions as she possessed, as well as she knew the exact sum of money which she owned; she understood her own advantages and defects to a nicety; she appreciated the utility of the interval thus attained for studying phases of society hitherto unknown, before entering on the great world; and she made the most of it. impossible to unite self-possession, simplicity of tastes and manners, and sound common sense, more admirably than they were combined in hester gould. impossible to be more popular and more impenetrable. had she been in possession of all the truth, she could hardly have understood the "situation" more clearly than she understood it, aided only by her remarkable penetration and the quickening influence of concentrated anger. had her heart been concerned in the scheme in which she had been defeated by the unconscious katharine, and in which only her brain and her will had been active, she would have felt more acutely and more transiently; but as it was, her anger neither cooled nor decreased. it was characteristic of hester that her changed position made not the least difference in her feelings. she knew that her wealth gave her opportunities in comparison with which a marriage with robert streightley would have been but a meagre triumph; she knew that her defeat had been practically rendered no defeat at all by the freak of fortune winch had endowed her with riches; but the knowledge had no effect on her. the ruling principle of her character, the egotism of an inflexible will, had suffered a deep wound, and she admitted no balm in such considerations to heal it. katharine's had been the hand to deal this wound. as for robert, "he never would have loved me," she said in her heart; "but i should have married him for all that." and she would punish katharine--unless, indeed, fate should spare her the trouble. of this vicarious vengeance she discerned a promising probability; for day by day she saw that katharine was hardening. she was satisfied to perceive the result, without analysing the process very closely; and she discerned that her own presence, though the most unexceptionable relations subsisted between her and her hosts, had as sinister an influence as she could desire. she was not the woman to employ unnecessary activity. if she could do mischief passively, so much the better, so much the safer. hester's character had received by her defeat the impulse towards the development of evil which had hitherto been wanting, and more than once she had to recall her determination never to permit any passion to gain dominion over her. hitherto her will had been stronger than any indication of passion she had ever felt; if it only proved so for the future, life would have no great harm in store for her.

lady henmarsh had taken the young heiress under her especial patronage (she had a genuine admiration for rich people); and before her visit to middlemeads had terminated, it was arranged that miss gould should be promoted to the place vacated by katharine, and should make her début in london society under the auspices of lady henmarsh.