'Why there!' Lydia exclaimed of a sudden. 'She's left the photographs!'
'What photographs?' Thyrza asked.
Lydia took from the table an envelope which contained some dozen cartes-de-visite. They were all the portraits which Mrs. Grail and her son possessed, and the old lady was very fond of looking over them and gossiping about them. She had brought them up to-night because she anticipated an evening of especial intimacy with Lydia.
Thyrza held out her hand for them. She knew them all, including the latest addition, which was a photograph of Walter Egremont. Egremont had given it to Grail about three weeks ago; it was two years old. She turned them out upon her lap.
'I think I'd better take them down now, hadn't I?' said Lydia.
'I wouldn't trouble till morning,' Thyrza answered, in a tired voice.
Two lay exposed before her: that of Gilbert, taken six years ago, and that of Egremont. Lydia, looking over her shoulder, remarked:
'What a boy Mr. Egremont looks, compared with Gilbert!'
Thyrza said nothing.
'Come, dear, put them in the envelope, and let me take them down.'