The two poses are in their way perfect, but it must be confessed that the palm goes to the younger woman.
It might well have been otherwise, as Lady Rylton is still, even at forty-six, a very graceful woman.

Small--very small--a sort of pocket Venus as it were, but so carefully preserved that at forty-six she might easily be called thirty-five.

If it were not for her one child, the present Sir Maurice Rylton, this fallacy might have been carried through.

But, unfortunately, Sir Maurice is now twenty-eight by the church register.

Lady Rylton hates church registers; they tell so much; and truth is always so rude! She is very fair.