She had exchanged the black dress in which I first saw her for one of
green velvet, trimmed with ermine. This dress was made with short
sleeves and low body, so as to leave exposed her ladyship's arms, long,
lean and skinny, and her scraggy neck. Her nose was hooked and her chin
pointed. Between the two shone a row of large white, even teeth, which
long afterwards I knew to be artificial. Equally artificial was the mass
of short black, frizzly curls that crowned her head, which was
unburdened with cap or covering of any kind. Her eyebrows were dyed to
match her hair. Her cheeks, even through the powder with which they were
thickly smeared, showed two spots of brilliant red, which no one less
ignorant than I would have accepted without question as the last genuine
remains of the bloom of youth. But at that first interview I accepted
everything au pied de la lettre, without doubt or question of any kind.

Her ladyship wore long earrings of filigree gold. Round her neck was a
massive gold chain. On her fingers sparkled several rings of
price--diamonds, rubies and opals. In figure her ladyship was tall, and
upright as a dart. She was, however, slightly lame of one foot, which
necessitated the use of a cane when walking. Lady Chillington's cane was
ivory-headed, and had a gold plate let into it, on which was engraved
her crest and initials. She was seated in an elaborately-carved
high-backed chair, near a table on which were the remains of a dessert
for one person.

The Green Saloon was a large gloomy room; at least it looked gloomy as I
saw it for the first time, lighted up by four wax candles where twenty
were needed. These four candles being placed close by where Lady
Chillington was sitting, left the other end of the saloon in comparative
darkness. The furniture was heavy, formal and old-fashioned. Gloomy
portraits of dead and gone Chillingtons lined the green walls, and this