sounded, and Tommy, flapping his wings angrily, shrieked at her:
"Now then, old girl! Come on!" she went to breakfast in a more
cheerful mood than she had known for months past.




CHAPTER II

INTRODUCES THE HONOURABLE JANE


The only one of her relatives who practically made her home with the
duchess was her niece and former ward, the Honourable Jane Champion;
and this consisted merely in the fact that the Honourable Jane was
the one person who might invite herself to Overdene or Portland
Place, arrive when she chose, stay as long as she pleased, and leave
when it suited her convenience. On the death of her father, when her
lonely girlhood in her Norfolk home came to an end, she would gladly
have filled the place of a daughter to the duchess. But the duchess
did not require a daughter; and a daughter with pronounced views,
plenty of back-bone of her own, a fine figure, and a plain face,
would have seemed to her Grace of Meldrum a peculiarly undesirable
acquisition. So Jane was given to understand that she might come
whenever she liked, and stay as long as she liked, but on the same
footing as other people. This meant liberty to come and go as she
pleased; and no responsibility towards her aunt's guests. The
duchess preferred managing her own parties in her oven way.

Jane Champion was now in her thirtieth year. She had once been