CHAPTER XXI.
Mrs.James Anderton was seated in the Italian parlor with the two ancient hostesses when Halcyone at last came into their midst.

They had evidently exhausted all possible topics of conversation and were extremely glad of an interruption.
Miss La Sarthe had been growing more and more annoyed at her great-niece's lengthy absence, while Miss Roberta felt so nervous she would like to have sniffed at her vinaigrette, but, alas! the stern eye of her sister was upon her and she dared not.
Mrs.James Anderton--good, worthy woman--had not passed an agreeable afternoon either.

She felt herself hopelessly out of tune with the two old ladies, whose exquisitely reserved polished manners disconcerted her.
She had been made to feel--most delicately, it is true, but still unmistakably--that she had committed a breach of taste in thus descending upon La Sarthe Chase unannounced.

And instead of the sensation of complacent importance which she usually enjoyed when among her own friends and acquaintances, she was experiencing a depressed sense of being a very small personage indeed.
Her highly colored comely face was very hot and flushed and she rather restlessly played with her parasol handle.

Miss La Sarthe's voice grew a little acid as she said: "This is our great-niece, Halcyone La Sarthe, Mrs.Anderton"-- and then--"It is unfortunate that you should have been so long absent, child." "I am very sorry," Halcyone returned gently, and she shook hands.