re Mary was sure that her costume must be as suitable as
it was beautiful, and that she was quite "in the picture," in this
magnificent room. She admired the lovely, perfumed ladies with wonderful
complexions and clothes, at neighbouring tables, and was thankful that
she looked not too unlike them. She hoped that she might become
acquainted with at least one or two of the prettiest before long,
because it must be pleasant to make friends in hotels with other people
who were alone like one's self. Peter also had admired the lovely ladies
with wonderful complexions and clothes who chose to live in the best
hotels at Monte Carlo; but she admired them in a different way, with a
kind of fearful fascination. And she had never talked of them to Mary.
One did not talk to Sister Rose of such things.

Mary was glad that the Dante young man (she began to call him thus, for
his profile really was like the poet's, and after all too stern for
Romeo) could see her in this dress and hat, after having a sight of her
first in the tweed, which she had now grown to detest. It really did
seem as if he remembered, for he looked at her with a straight look,
almost as if he were asking a grave, important question. She was afraid
that he must be unhappy, for certainly his eyes were tragic, if they
were not reproachful; and of course they couldn't be reproachful, as he
didn't know her, and had nothing to be reproachful about.

The waiter who served her was a charming person, with delightful
manners, almost like those of the Frenchman who had been kind to her on
the way to Paris. He recommended things on the menu, which turned out to
be exquisite. They were the most expensive, also, but Mary did not know
that. It seemed quite odd that one should have to pay for food at all,
for always it had appeared to come as a matter of course, like the air
one breathed. When he advised her sympathetically to try a little
champagne, refreshed with ice, she would have been grieved to hurt his
feelings by refusing, even if she had not rather wanted to know what
champagne was like. People in books drank it when they wished to be
merry and enjoy themselves, and it made their eyes bright and their
cheeks red. Mary had had the chance of reading very few novels, but she
recalled this bit of useful knowledge concerning champagne.

She tasted it, and found it nice, deliciously cold and sparkling. No
wonder it made the eyes bright! But after all, she could not drink mu