All those prejudices--which had seemed to him such rational common-sense truths, when translated from his own mind into the words of Lady Janet's letter,--was not Mrs. Morley right in denouncing them as the crotchets of an insolent egotism? Was it not rather to the favour than to the disparagement of Isaura, regarded even in the man's narrow-minded view of woman's dignity, that this orphan girl could, with character so unscathed, pass through the trying ordeal of the public babble, the public gaze-command alike the esteem of a woman so pure as Mrs. Morley, the reverence of a man so chivalrously sensitive to honour as Alain de Rochebriant? Musing thus, Graham's countenance at last brightened--a glorious joy entered into and possessed him. He felt as a man who had burst asunder the swathes and trammels which had kept him galled and miserable with the sense of captivity, and from which some wizard spell that took strength from his own superstition had forbidden to struggle. He was free!--and that freedom was rapture!--yes, his resolve was taken. The day was now far advanced. He should have just time before the dinner with Duplessis to drive to A------, where he still supposed Isaura resided. How, as his _fiacre_ rolled along the well-remembered road-- how completely he lived in that world of romance of which he denied himself to be a denizen. Arrived at the little villa, he found it occupied only by workmen--it was under repair. No one could tell him to what residence the ladies who occupied it the last year had removed. "I shall learn from Mrs. Morley," thought Graham, and at her house he called in going back, but Mrs. Morley was not at home; he had only just time, after regaining his apartment, to change his dress for the dinner to which he was invited. As it was, he arrived late, and while apologising to his host for his want of punctuality, his tongue faltered. At the farther end of the room he saw a face, paler and thinner than when he had seen it last--a face across which a something of grief had gone. The servant announced that dinner was served. "Mr. Vane," said Duplessis, "will you take into dinner Mademoiselle Cicogna?"