"Oh! there you are wrong," cried the sufferer. "My face is very much
swollen on one side."

But she did not mention on which side the disfigurement was to be seen,
and she ate an excellent dinner and talked very brightly to her host,
who could not think why his wife had taken an evident dislike to the
little woman. Edmund teased her several times, and would not let her
settle down into her usual state of self-content, but after dinner she
wisely took refuge with the merciful Rose.

Lady Groombridge meanwhile gave Molly a dose of good advice, kindly, if
a little roughly, administered.

"I was pretty and an orphan myself, and it is not very easy work; then
you have money, which makes it both better and worse. Be with wise
people as much as you can; if they are a little dull it is worth while.
If you take up with any bright, amusing woman you meet, you will find
yourself more worried in the long run;" and she glanced significantly at
Mrs. Delaport Green.

The obvious nature of the advice, of which this remark is a sample, did
not spoil it. Sometimes it is a comfort to have the thing said to us
that we quite see for ourselves. In to-day's unwonted mood Molly was
ready to receive very ordinary wisdom as golden.

And then Lady Groombridge discovered that Molly was musical, and the
older woman loved music, finding in it some of the romance which was
shut out by her own limitations and by a life of over great bustle and
worry.