"Lionel tells me sometimes I am so changed since I went out, that even he would scarcely have known me. I do not think I am so changed as all that. I had a great deal of vexation and trouble, and I grew thin. But I shall soon be well again now."
A pause.
"You ascertained no certain news of John Massingbird, I hear," observed Lady Verner.
"Not any. A gentleman there is endeavouring to trace out more particulars. I heard—did Lionel mention to you—that I heard, strange to say, of Luke Roy, from the family I was visiting—the Eyres? Lionel"—turning to him—"did you repeat it to Lady Verner?"
"I believe not," replied Lionel. He could not say to Sibylla, "My mother would tolerate no conversation on any topic connected with you."
Another flagging pause.
Lionel, to create a divertisement, raised a remarkably, fine specimen of coral from the table, and carried it to his mother.
"It is beautiful," he remarked. "Sibylla brought it home with her."
Lady Verner allowed that it was beautiful.
"Show it to Lucy," she said, when she had examined it with interest. "Lucy, my dear, do you remember what I was telling you the other evening, about the black coral?"