CHAPTER IX.

"Alas! our memories may retrace
Each circumstance of time and place;
Season and scene come back again,
And outward things unchanged remain:
The rest we cannot reinstate;
Ourselves we cannot re-create,
Nor get our souls to the same key
Of the remember'd harmony."

Longfellow.


The dinner party at Mount Severn this evening was an undoubted success,
as were most of Lady Severn's entertainments, for she possessed to a
great degree that invaluable gift of a hostess--the art of allowing
people to entertain themselves. And, added to the charm of her manner,
and her undoubted tact in bringing the right people together, Lady
Severn had all the accessories to make a dinner party go off well. The
large dining-room was a long, low, octagonal apartment, with a small
conservatory opening out at the lower end. There were numerous small
alcoves in the wall, and in the recesses of each of these were huge pots
of maidenhair fern.

All along the oak-panelled walls at short intervals were placed
old-fashioned brass sconces with candles in them, which shed a clear
though subdued light on the dinner table and the faces of the guests,