one corner of his mouth being more compressed than the other, producing a
deep line thence downwards to the side of his chin. Each eyebrow rose
obliquely outwards and upwards, and was thus far above the little eye,
shining with the clearness of a pond that has just been able to weather
the heats of summer. Below this was a preternaturally fat jowl, which,
by thrusting against cheeks and chin, caused the arch old mouth to be
almost buried at the corners.

A few words of greeting passed, and Ethelberta told him how she was
fearing to meet them all, united and primed with their morning's
knowledge as they appeared to be.

'Well, we have not done much yet,' said Lord Mountclere. 'As for myself,
I have given no thought at all to our day's work. I had not forgotten
your promise to attend, if you could possibly drive across, and--hee-hee-
hee!--I have frequently looked towards the hill where the road descends.
. . . Will you now permit me to introduce some of my party--as many of
them as you care to know by name? I think they would all like to speak
to you.'

Ethelberta then found herself nominally made known to ten or a dozen
ladies and gentlemen who had wished for special acquaintance with her.
She stood there, as all women stand who have made themselves remarkable
by their originality, or devotion to any singular cause, as a person
freed of her hampering and inconvenient sex, and, by virtue of her
popularity, unfettered from the conventionalities of manner prescribed by
custom for household womankind. The charter to move abroad unchaperoned,
which society for good reasons grants only to women of three sorts--the
famous, the ministering, and the improper--Ethelberta was in a fair way
to make splendid use of: instead of walking in protected lanes she