CHAPTER VII.
I have given a sketch of the outward woman of Mrs.Colonel Poyntz.

The inner woman was a recondite mystery deep as that of the sphinx, whose features her own resembled.

But between the outward and the inward woman there is ever a third woman,--the conventional woman,--such as the whole human being appears to the world,--always mantled, sometimes masked.
I am told that the fine people of London do not recognize the title of "Mrs.Colonel." If that be true, the fine people of London must be clearly in the wrong, for no people in the universe could be finer than the fine people of Abbey Hill; and they considered their sovereign had as good a right to the title of Mrs.Colonel as the Queen of England has to that of "our Gracious Lady." But Mrs.Poyntz herself never assumed the title of Mrs.Colonel; it never appeared on her cards,--any more than the title of "Gracious Lady" appears on the cards which convey the invitation that a Lord Steward or Lord Chamberlain is commanded by her Majesty to issue.

To titles, indeed, Mrs.Poyntz evinced no superstitious reverence.

Two peeresses, related to her, not distantly, were in the habit of paying her a yearly visit which lasted two or three days.