‘She is independent enough. I wonder what you will think of my puzzle, General. They say that I ought not to keep her here in the village--that she ought to come out under her aunt, Lady Portcullis’, auspices, instead of living so quietly here with me.’ ‘They talk nonsense, my dear lady,’ said the General; ‘a girl is always best, and I think she always looks her nicest, by her mother’s side.’ ‘Thank you for that kind opinion, General.’ ‘But I can’t see any reason,’ said the old gentleman, ‘why her mother, a lady whom we all admire and honour, should not herself abandon the quiet corner a little (though we should miss her dreadfully), and bring out her daughter, which would be better than any Lady Portcullis in the world.’ ‘Ah, but that is impossible,’ Lady William said quickly. She was moved a little out of her place by the rush of the procession from the drawing-room, all the elder ladies going in; but presently she went back and addressed herself to doing her duty by Mrs. FitzStephen in guiding these elder ladies as they returned into the smaller room. ‘We may as well make ourselves comfortable here,’ she said, ‘since all the children are happy and in full swing.’ It was always Lady William who settled these things--and so quietly. The ladies were very glad of comfortable seats after standing half the evening against the wall, and the General managed to get up the quiet rubber he loved, while still one waltz followed another, and the whirling figures went round and round. ‘Tell me,’ said Leo Swinford, coming in behind her a little out of breath, ‘why Miss Wade tells me I am the only one of her set. I am not of her set, or any set; is it intended to be civil, or what does she mean?’ ‘She means that the rest of us are of the village, and she and you are of the county, which is a very different thing.’ ‘It is a distinction I do not understand. Nobility and gentry!--yes, I know what that means: but we are not noblesse at all, neither she nor I. We are more or less rich--no two of us the same--but is that the only distinction here?’ ‘Oh no; there are a great many grades of distinction. The county means the aristocracy----’ ‘Permit me; you and Miss Mab are the only persons noble here--is that not so? Ah, you will have to give me many lessons to bring me to a proper understanding. ‘And yet I condemn Mab to be nobody,’ said Lady William. ‘Yes, that is what I am doing. Her old friends are very good to her. She has her little triumph to-night. But it will not always be her first ball. And it is I who keep her in obscurity. I think I am learning my lesson more quickly than you do yours.’ XXVII