The smile died out from the Duchess's face when she was left alone. A hard, stern look took its place. She took up a hand-glass, and intently examined her own face. 'He is in love with the girl, is he?' she murmured; 'and she with him. Why, I saw it in their guilty stolen looks; her accents betrayed her when she spoke. It is not enough that she must cross me in the House, but she would rob me of a husband. Not yet, Lady Carlyon--not yet.' ... She looked at herself again. 'Oh, that I could be again what I was at one-and-twenty! It is true, as Julia said, that I have nothing to give the boy in return for what I ask of him--his affection. I am an old woman--sixty-five years of age. I suppose I have had my share of love. Harry loved me when I was young, because I was young. Poor Harry! I did not then know how much he loved me, nor the value of a man's heart. Well ... as for the other two, they loved me after their fashion--but it was not like Harry's love; they said they loved me, and in return I gave them all they wanted. They were happy, and I had to be contented.' She mused in silence for a time; then she roused herself with an effort. 'What then? Let them talk. I am the Duchess of Dunstanburgh. She shall have her whim; she shall have her darling, and if he chooses to sulk, she will punish him until he smiles again. Wait, my lord, only wait till you are safe on the Northumberland coast, and in my castle of Dunstanburgh.' CHAPTER V IN THE SEASON Women, especially politicians, are (or rather were, until the Revolt) accustomed to the publicity of photographs, illustrated papers, paragraphs in society papers, and to the curiosity with which people stare after them wherever they show themselves. They used to like it. Men, who were, on the other hand, taught to respect modest retirement and that graceful obscurity becoming to the masculine hand which carries out the orders of the female brain, shrank from such notoriety. It was a curious sensation for young Lord Chester to feel, rather than to see and to hear, the people pointing him out, and talking about him. 'Courage!' whispered the Professor. 'You will have to encounter a great deal more curiosity than this before long. Above all, do not show by any sign or change of expression that you are conscious of their staring.'