She might have been ten years old instead of twenty-two, her colour, her eyes, her spirits seemed of a freshness so infantine.
She was leaning back in her chair laughing enchantingly at one of Miss Brooke's sparkling remarks when Lord Walderhurst, who sat next to her, said suddenly, glancing round the table: "But where is Miss Fox-Seton ?" It was perhaps a significant fact that up to this moment nobody had observed her absence.

It was Lady Maria who replied.
"I am almost ashamed to answer," she said.

"As I have said before, Emily Fox-Seton has become the lodestar of my existence.

I cannot live without her.

She has walked over to Maundell to make sure that we do not have a dinner-party without fish to-night." "She has _walked_ over to Maundell," said Lord Walderhurst--"after yesterday ?" "There was not a pair of wheels left in the stable," answered Lady Maria.