Her maid, Villiers, came into the room and announced that a Mr Shell and a Mr Stewart were downstairs and wished to see her. ‘Send them up!’ she said, believing them to be her friends, the music publishers Duff & Stewart, and that Villiers had mistaken Duff’s name. It was an odd time to pay a call, ten o’clock on a Sunday morning, but never mind. She felt no need to change her attire; these visitors were well known to her, and in any case, she cared less and less for appearances. As she would later say, ‘Being beautiful only helps men who are no good to fall in love with you.’ She was still up the ladder when two men entered – not her Duff & Stewart at all, but strangers, announcing, ‘Mrs Weldon, you do not know us, but we know you. We are spiritualists and we have read your letters to The Spiritualist newspaper on the education of children and we wish to place some infants with you in your school of music.’ Feather duster in hand, she descended, and asked them to please sit down; she would be happy to talk about this subject, to which she had dedicated the past eleven years of her life.
