It was not the seat she would have wished him to take; but to interfere again might have imperilled her own place.

Maude laughed.

She did not care for Val--rather despised him in her heart; but he was the most attractive man present, and she liked admiration.
Another link in the chain! For how many, many days and years, dating from that evening, did that awful old woman take a seat, at intervals, at Lord Hartledon's table, and assume it as a right!.