And therewith I was shown into the room where the lady was expecting me. She sat with her back to the door, and I could only see that she was richly attired in full evening dress. There was a powerful smell of vinegar in the room, and two pastiles were burning. As I walked round the table she rose with some reluctance, and I confronted Mrs. Daldy.
CHAPTER XVI.
We stood for a moment, examining each other. She was fattening nicely on what she called "holy converse and spiritual outpourings at Cheltenham." She rushed forward with great enthusiasm.
"Why, Clara, darling, is it possible? Can this be you--so grown, and improved in every way? I never should have known you, I do declare! Why, you have quite a brilliant colour, and your eyes, and your hair--oh dear, how proud your sweet mother would have been! You lovely creature, I must have a kiss! What, not even your pretty hand?"
"No, Mrs. Daldy; never more my hand to a person who dared to insult my father. Me you might have insulted a thousand times, and I would have forgiven you."
"Come now, let bygones be bygones, that's a dear. Oh for a little more of the essence of Christianity! Let us stoop to the hem of the garment of the meek and lowly"--I will not write the sacred name she used--"let us poor grovelling fellow-sinners--"
"Don't couple me with yourself, I beg." I was losing my temper, and she saw her advantage.
"Not even as a sinner, dear? I thought in my humility that we all were sinners."
"So we are; but not all hypocrites."
She kept her temper wonderfully, in all except her eyes.