At the door of Madame Davilliers' residence Elsie paused.
"I may as well go in now," she said to Lambert. "Will you not come in and say a little word to madame? and you, too, Mr. Glynn, she will be delighted to see you."
Glynn assented. After a quarter of an hour's lively talk amidst a circle of evidently solid and respectable visitors he was cordially requested to call again, and left the house with Lambert, feeling that another link had been added to the magic chain which was twining itself around him.
"She's an elegant woman, faith," said Lambert with the air of a connoisseur, as he left the house with Glynn, "and so is the demoiselle. I always count it real good luck that Elsie fell in with them, for between you and me and the post, none of my acquaintances were just suited to introduce a young lady into society. It's been uphill work I can tell you, but Madame D. has been no end of a help to me. Why, you'd never have the faintest notion of all the whim-whams she has put me up to! Wouldn't you think now a girl would be all right in her father's house with a respectable young woman like Celestine to wait on her? Not a bit of it. Madame says I must have a sort of a lady to be a companion to Elsie, and so she found Madame Weber for us. Now they are going to marry Antoinette to a very respectable wealthy young Vicomte that will be another backer for Elsie. I believe preliminaries are nearly arranged, and then he'll be presented as a prétendant."
"What a hideous system it is," ejaculated Glynn.
"I don't see that at all," returned Lambert; "a good girl will get fond of any man who makes her a kind husband, and God only knows the relief it is to a parent to make sure that all's right, and see, too, one's girl safe under the protection of a strong man." He spoke with feeling.
"There are some better aspects, I confess, to the mariage de convenance," said Glynn, "but the worse outweigh them."
"Well, I am inclined for the system, though our Amurican girls would never stand it."
"Are you American?" asked Glynn, encouraged by his companion's confidential, regretful tone to put the question.
"A naturalized American. I was obliged by the persecutions of a cruel government to quit my native land as a mere boy, and leave behind me the life of a gentleman, for I can tell you, sir, the Lamberts of Ballybough are as good a stock as any in Ireland; that's five-and-thirty years ago; between you and me I had a hard, sometimes a desperate fight of it since, but I keep all that to myself. Madame D. there thinks me a big man entirely; it's all the better for her, and all I care for is my jewel Elsie."