Before it began to move, Clementina thought she saw Lord Lioncourt
hurrying past their carriage-window. At Rugby the clergyman appeared, but
almost before he could speak, Lord Lioncourt's little red face showed at
his elbow. He asked Clementina to present him to Mrs. Lander, who pressed
him to get into her compartment; the clergyman vanished, and Lord
Lioncourt yielded.

Mrs. Lander found him able to tell her the best way to get to Florence,
whose situation he seemed to know perfectly; he confessed that he had
been there rather often. He made out a little itinerary for going
straight through by sleeping-car as soon as you crossed the Channel; she
had said that she always liked a through train when she could get it, and
the less stops the better. She bade Clementina take charge of the plan
and not lose it; without it she did not see what they could do. She
conceived of him as a friend of Clementina's, and she lost in the strange
environment the shyness she had with most people. She told him how Mr.
Lander had made his money, and from what beginnings he rose to be
ignorant of what he really was worth when he died. She dwelt upon the
diseases they had suffered, and at the thought of his death, so
unnecessary in view of the good that the air was already doing her in
Europe, she shed tears.

Lord Lioncourt was very polite, but there was no resumption of the ship's
comradery in his manner. Clementina could not know how quickly this
always drops from people who have been fellow-passengers; and she
wondered if he were guarding himself from her because she had danced at
the charity entertainment. The poison which Mrs. Milray had instilled
worked in her thoughts while she could not help seeing how patient he was
with all Mrs. Lander's questions; he answered them with a simplicity of