It was at that moment, and when the fun was growing more fast and furious than the respective mothers of those unconventional guests would have thought permissible, that a small group of spectators suddenly appeared upon the scene. It consisted of Sophy Duberly, Horace Vavasour, and two of Lady Guernsey’s young daughters, who had volunteered the to them delightful task of introducing Miss Duberly to where the tenants’ children were, at a humble distance, aping their superiors at the fashionable game which the young aristocrats believed in as a _spécialité_ of their own. “It’s such fun to see them,” said Lady Margaret; “they haven’t an idea how to play! Julia and I have been watching them without their knowing it, and they _are_ so stupid!” This noble maiden, who was ten years of age, possessed a turn for satire (which quality her mamma prudently suppressed. “It does not do, you know, to encourage clever children to make remarks”); and it being gratifying, as we all know, to find anyone performing anything worse than we are capable of executing it ourselves, the little Lady Margaret was well-pleased to act as show-woman of the plebeian sports, as they were conducted that day. The approach of the party, walking slowly along the greensward, was not noticed by the croquet-players (so exuberant was the laughter that, not exactly, it is to be feared, under “sweet control of gracefulness,” rang from their souls) till it was too late to look conventionally demure, was not noticed, in short, till Lady Margaret and her convoy were almost in the midst of Honor’s not very promising scholars. She was the first to perceive them, and after a hurried glance, one of the bright sudden blushes that was the most engaging of its attractions spread over her beautiful face. Sophy Duberly, like all those who saw Honor for the first time, was struck, nay almost startled, by her loveliness. She longed to ask Horace Vavasour the name of that peerless creature, but she was for the moment obliged to restrain her curiosity; for they were almost within earshot of the woman whom Horace knew so well by sight, knew too as the _rival_ of the gentle-natured heiress so soon to be his sister-in-law.