[Illustration: Elizabeth] THE VISITS OF ELIZABETH _By_ ELINOR GLYN TWENTY SECOND EDITION. Cambridge U.S.A. MDCCCI (1901) Contents NAZEBY HALL 300 EATON PLACE HEAVILAND MANOR HAZELDENE COURT CHÂTEAU DE CROIXMARE YACHT "SAUTERELLE" CAUDEBEC HOTEL FRASCATI, HAVRE CHÂTEAU DE CROIXMARE CHAMPS ELYSÉES CHÂTEAU DE CROIXMARE RETBY CARRISTON TOWERS CHEVENIX CASTLE FOLJAMBE PLACE NAZEBY HALL It was perhaps a fortunate thing for Elizabeth that her ancestors went back to the Conquest, and that she numbered at least two Countesses and a Duchess among her relatives. Her father had died some years ago, and, her mother being an invalid, she had lived a good deal abroad. But, at about seventeen, Elizabeth began to pay visits among her kinsfolk. It was after arriving at Nazeby Hall, for a Cricket Week, that she first wrote home. Nazeby Hall, _26th July_. Dearest Mamma,--I got here all right, without even a smut on my face, for Agnès tidied me up in the brougham before we arrived at the gate. The dust in the train was horrid. It is a nice house. They were at tea when I was ushered in; it was in the hall--I suppose it was because it was so windy outside. There seemed to be a lot of people there; and they all stopped talking suddenly, and stared at me as if I were a new thing in the Zoo, and then, after a minute, went on with their conversations at the point they had left off. [Sidenote: _Afternoon Tea_] Lady Cecilia pecked my cheek, and gave me two fingers; and asked me, in a voice right up at the top, how were you. I said you were better, and--you know what you told me to say. She murmured something while she was listening to what a woman with a sweet frock and green eyes was saying at the other end of the table. There was heaps of tea. She waved vaguely for me to sit down, which I did; but there was a footstool near, and it was half dark, so I fell over that, but not very badly, and got safely to my seat.