"Yes, my lady."
"You have exquisite taste, really exquisite. Mother Denise, I am really obliged to you."
"I have done nothing," said Mother Denise, "that it was not my duty to do."
"Such an unpleasant way of putting it; for there is a way of doing things----"
"Just what grandfather said," cried Dionetta, gleefully, "a hard way and a soft way." And then becoming suddenly aware of her rudeness in interrupting her mistress, she curtsied, and with a bright colour in her face, said, "I beg your pardon, my lady."
"There's no occasion, child," said Adelaide graciously. "Grandfather is quite right, and everything in this room has been done beautifully." She held a framed picture in her hand, a coloured cabinet photograph of herself, and she looked round the walls to find a place for it. "This will do," she said, and she took down the picture of a child which hung immediately above her desk, and put her own in its stead. "It is nice," she said to Mother Denise, smiling, "to see the faces of old friends about us. Mr. Almer and I are very old friends."
"The picture you have taken down," said Mother Denise, "is of Christian Almer when he was a child."
"Indeed! How old was he then?"
"Five years, my lady."
"He was a handsome boy. His hair and eyes are darker now. You were speaking of him, Mother Denise, as I entered. You were saying he was thirty-one last birthday, and that you remember the day he was born."