CHAPTER XXIII. MALONE IN GOOD COMPANY [Illustration: 205] When Georgina returned to the drawing-room, she found her sister seated on a sofa, with Sir Within beside her, and in front of them stood a girl, whose appearance certainly answered ill to the high-flown descriptions Sir Gervais had given them of her beauty. With the evident intention of making a favourable first impression, her grandfather had dressed her up in some faded relics of Mrs. Luttrel’s wardrobe: a blue silk dress, flounced and trimmed, reaching to her feet, while a bonnet of some extinct shape shadowed her face and concealed her hair, and a pair of satin boots, so large that they curved up, Turkish fashion, towards the toes, gave her the look rather of some wandering circus performer, than of a peasant child. “Je la trouve affreusement laide!” said Lady Vyner, as her sister came forward and examined herewith a quiet and steady stare through her eye-glass. “She is certainly nothing like the sketch he made, and still less like the description he gave of her,” said Georgina, in French. “What do you say, Sir Within?” “There is something--not exactly beauty--about her,” said he, in the same language, “but something that, cultivated and developed, might possibly be attractive. Her eyes have a strange colour in them: they are grey, but they are of that grey that gets a tinge of amethyst when excited.” While they thus spoke, the girl had turned from one to the other, listening attentively, and as eagerly watching the expressions of the listeners’ faces, to gather what she might of their meaning. “Your name is Kitty--Kitty O’Hara, I think?” said Lady Vyner. “A very good name, too, is O’Hara!” “Yes, my Lady. There is an O’Hara lives at Craig-na-Manna, in his own castle.” “Are you related to him?” asked Georgina, gravely. “No, my Lady.” “Distantly, perhaps, you might be?” “Perhaps we might; at all events, he never said so!” “And you think, probably, it was more for him to own the relationship than for you to claim it?” The girl was silent, and looked thoughtful; and Lady Vyner said, “I don’t think she understood you, Georgy?” “Yes I did, my Lady; but I didn’t know what to say.” “At all events,” said Georgina, “you don’t call each other cousins.” The child nodded. “And yet, Kitty, if I don’t mistake greatly, you’d like well enough to have some grand relations--fine, rich people living in their own great castle?” “Yes, I’d like that!” said the girl. And her cheek glowed, while her eyes deepened into the colour the old Baronet described. “And if we were to be to you as these same cousins, Batty,” said Lady Vyner, good naturedly, “do you think you could love us, and be happy with us?” The girl turned her head and surveyed the room with a quiet leisurely look, and, though it was full of objects new and strange, she did not let her gaze dwell too long on any one in particular; and, in a quiet, steady tone, said, “I’d like to live here!”