the business that had taken him to Hamburg. To this arrangement her
ladyship made no objection, it suited her views exactly; her idea was,
that her advent in India should become known to the gay and fashionable
butterflies of the Presidency as quietly and gradually as might be. It
was necessary that they should be aware there was such a person as Lady
Chutny in existence; but for the present she would be heard of only and
not seen, so that when she appeared among them and threw open her
splendid rooms for balls and other entertainments it would be considered
a matter of course, a thing to be expected from the wife of so wealthy a
man as Sir Lexicon was reputed to be. Her ladyship's theory was the
correct one, for by acting in this manner she would be relieved from the
hubbub and cry of "Who is she?" and "Where does she come from?" that
would consequently follow, should she at once rush into the vortex of
fashionable life. She had no intention of burying herself at
Pallamcotta, now that she had attained the position for which she had
risked so much. She had played her cards boldly and unscrupulously, and,
during the shuffle had twice nearly come to ruin; but she had now, she
believed, won the odd trick that would secure her the game, and she
resolutely determined to hold on to the stakes thus acquired. From the
retrospect of her past life she turned herself steadfastly away, and
looked only into the brilliant future, which she fancied was opening
before her. What was there to fear? There was no one in India who could
recognize her, or knew anything of her antecedents. Edith and Arthur had
returned to England; restitution had been made and justice done them by
the unlooked for death of Sir Ralph Coleman. He was the chief culprit;
she merely an accessory, acting under his direction and guidance; and,
now that she had placed oceans between her and the scene of their crime,
nothing, she argued, could transpire to mar her triumph, and, laying
this flattering unction to her soul, her ladyship prepared for her
journey with a buoyancy of spirit that astonished even herself.