Lady Emily had married a brother of Mr. Dudgeon’s. Adelaide Maud’s devotion to her father’s memory put her uncle into the position of a kind of patron saint of her own existence. She sometimes thought that his character supplied a number of these impulses which made Lady Emily the dear she was. Lady Emily was the daughter of a Duke, and had none of the aspirations of a climber, her family having climbed so long ago, that any little beatings about a modern ladder seemed ridiculous. Her brother was the present duke of course, and "made laws in London," as Miss Grace used to describe it. This phantom of a duke, intermarried in a way into her family, had prevented Mrs. Dudgeon from knowing any of the Ridgetown people--intimately that is. Yet the duke never called, and Lady Emily wore her dull coat of reserve when in Mrs. Dudgeon’s company. Lady Emily’s heart went out, however, to the "golden-haired girls" who spent their seasons with her in London. She was perfectly sweet about the Leightons, and called at the girls’ club in state. What an honour! The girls found their ideas tumbling. Lady Emily was much more "easy" than any one they had met. They prepared for the dinner quite light-heartedly. After all, it could only be a dream. London was a dream. London in the early winter with mellow air, only occasionally touched with frost, glittering lights in the evenings, and crowds of animated people. So different from the dew dripping avenues of streets at Ridgetown. They "skimmed" along in a hansom to Lady Emily’s and thought they were the most dashing persons in London. "But it’s only a dream, remember," said Jean. They went in radiantly through wide portals. Footmen moved out of adjacent corners and bowed them on automatically. Mabel loved it, but Jean for a few agonizing seconds felt over-weighted. Then "it’s only a dream!" They dreamed through a mile of corridor and ran into Adelaide Maud. The dream passed and they were chatting gaily at shilling seat gossip, and that sort of thing. Adelaide Maud made the maids skim about. They liked her, that was evident. Mabel and Jean were prinked up and complimented. "You are ducks, you know," said Adelaide Maud. They proceeded to the drawing-room.