, and the arrival of a nice English family always
put her in excellent spirits. She then exhibited herself as an Anglicized
matron, perfectly familiar with all the requirements, great and little, of her
guests, and, when minutiæ were once settled, capable of meeting ladies and
gentlemen on terms of equality in her drawing-room or at her table, where she
always presided. Indeed, there was much true refinement in Mrs. Gluck. You had
not been long in her house before she found an opportunity of letting you know
that she prided herself on connection with the family of the great musician, and
under her roof there was generally some one who played or sang well. It was her
desire that all who sat at her dinner-table - the English people, at all events
- should be in evening dress. She herself had no little art in adorning herself
so as to appear, what she was, a lady, and yet not to conflict with the ladies
whose presence honoured her.
    In the drawing-room, a few days after the arrival of Mrs. Lessingham and her
niece, several members of the household were assembled in readiness for the
second dinner-bell. There was Frau Wohlgemuth, a middle-aged lady with severe
brows, utilizing spare moments over a German work on Greek sculpture. Certain
plates in the book had caught the eye of Mrs. Bradshaw, with the result that she
regarded this innocent student as a person of most doubtful character, who, if
in ignorance admitted to a respectable boarding-house, should certainly have
been got rid of as soon as the nature of her reading had been discovered. Frau
Wohlgemuth had once or twice been astonished at the severe look fixed upon her
by the buxom English lady, but happily would never receive an explanation of
this silent animus. Then there was Fräulein Kriel, who had unwillingly incurred
even more of Mrs. Bradshaw's displeasure, in that she, an unmarried person, had
actually looked over the volume together with its possessor, not so much as
blushing when she found herself observed by strangers. The remaining persons
were an English family, a mother and three daughters, their name Denyer.
    Mrs. Denyer was florid, vivacious, and of a certain size. She had seen much
of the world, and prided herself on cosmopolitanism; the one thing with which
she could not dispense was intellectual society. This would be her second winter
at Naples, but she gave her acquaintances to understand that Italy was by no
means the country of her choice; she preferred the northern latitudes, because
there the intellectual atmosphere