"They are here--come closer, I don't want to be overheard--for a
_woman_--whom I took in, in a moment of lunacy--who is now robbing me of
my best friends and supplanting me in my own house."

The pallor of the old face had lost all its waxen dignity. The lowered
voice hissed in his ear. Sir Wilfrid, startled and repelled, hesitated
for his reply. Meanwhile, Lady Henry, who could not see it, seemed at
once to divine the change in his expression.

"Oh, I suppose you think I'm mad," she said, impatiently, "or
ridiculous. Well, see for yourself, judge for yourself. In fact, I have
been looking, hungering, for your return. You have helped me through
emergencies before now. And I am in that state at present that I trust
no one, talk to no one, except of _banalités_. But I should be greatly
obliged if _you_ would come and listen to me, and, what is more, advise
me some day."

"Most gladly," said Sir Wilfrid, embarrassed; then, after a pause, "Who
is this lady I find installed here?"

Lady Henry hesitated, then shut her strong mouth on the temptation to
speak.

"It is not a story for to-night," she said; "and it would upset me. But,
when you first saw her, how did she strike you?"

"I saw at once," said her companion after a pause, "that you had caught
a personality."