Lady Bell, in her fresh heroine worship, where Mrs. Sundon was concerned, could not have conceived that there might be a second Mrs. Sundon in the world, and that the second would be a successful rival of the first. But here she was, and under the greatest disadvantages of dress, without Mrs. Sundon’s high-bred graciousness of manner to Lady Bell, and with the natural fulness of the magnificent proportions of her figure and features, attenuated apparently by recent ill-health, and dragged by work and care. Lady Bell was actually nettled and mortified at having to own a successful rival with these odds against her, to the idol of Lady Bell’s imagination; for whom, in a fit of enthusiasm, she had been willing to sacrifice magnanimously the little good she had in the world. Notwithstanding, Lady Bell was compelled to admit the truth, and, with all her youthful, rampant, quality prejudices, to yield to the coolly asserted supremacy of the rival. The stranger lady’s companion was much more ordinary in appearance, though far better dressed than his partner. He was one of those fair-complexioned, regular-featured, well-grown men, in whose looks there is an inveterate commonplaceness that in itself stamps them with vulgarity, more odious to some minds than the extreme of bizarre ugliness. The gentleman showed a strong disposition to take the lead, including an irritating charge of the lady, who was the moving spirit of the party, and who could clearly not merely care for herself, but mould the inclinations of others to suit her convenience. She moulded this man’s turn for management, which she could not altogether control, into a saving of trouble in minor matters. She allowed him to settle the bill which she had looked over, and to establish her and her baby in the very corner of the carriage that she had selected for herself. She granted this license with a discreet kindliness of manner, as of a woman who made the best of her friend’s good qualities to the extent of setting store on them. Lady Bell detected in a moment, with regard to the gentleman, that, though he wore a superfine riding-coat, he was not a man of quality; while she did no more than suspect for a time that the noble-looking woman, in the duffle mantle, who was acting as her own nursery-maid, had not been bred in Lady Bell’s rank of life. For some time after starting the lady was engrossed with her child. When she had hushed it to rest, she took out a book, which she had carried in a reticule, and set herself to study it. The study was a matter of lively interest to the gentleman, as he bent forward and asked at intervals, “Have you got it yet? Ain’t you mistress of it?” His insignificance did not flow forth in other chatter, happily for Lady Bell, who found him as taciturnly indifferent to her as the lady was, and much less of an involuntary interruption to her troubled thoughts.