On the contrary, her independence was plain; she had a very free and merry tongue; and Lady Dunstable, who snubbed everybody, never snubbed Mattie Field.

Lord Dunstable was clearly devoted to her.
She greeted Meadows rather absently.
"Rachel didn't carry you off?
Oh, then--I wonder if I may ask you something ?" Meadows assured her she might ask him anything.
"I wonder if you will save yourself for a walk with Lord Dunstable.
Will you ask him?
He's very low, and you would cheer him up." Meadows looked at her interrogatively.

He too had noticed that Lord Dunstable had seemed for some days to be out of spirits.
"Why do people have sons!" said Miss Field, briskly.
Meadows understood the reference.

It was common knowledge among the Dunstables' friends that their son was anything but a comfort to them.
"Anything particularly wrong ?" he asked her in a lowered voice, as they neared the house.

At the same time, he could not help wondering whether, under all circumstances--if her nearest and dearest were made mincemeat in a railway accident, or crushed by an earth-quake--this fair-haired, rosy-cheeked lady would still keep her perennial smile.