.

"Lady Jeune catches society by the throat and worries it," said Madame
Valtesi.

"She worries it very inartistically," added Lord Reggie.

"Ah!" said Amarinth, as the ladies rose to go into the drawing-room;
"she makes one great mistake. She judges of Society by her own parties,
and looks at life through the spectacles of a divorce court judge. No
wonder she is the bull terrier of modern London life."

Mrs. Windsor paused at the dining-room door and looked back.

"We are going to have coffee in the garden," she said. "Will you join us
there? Don't stay too long over your water, Mr. Smith," she added, with
pious archness.

"No; but I never take coffee, thank you," he answered solemnly.

VIII.

Esme Amarinth was generally amusing and whimsical in conversation, but,
like other men, he had his special moments, and the half-hour after
dinner, when the ladies, longing to remain as invisible listeners, had
retired to the bald deserts of feminine society, was usually his time of
triumph. His mental stays were then unfastened. He could breathe forth
his stories freely. His wittiest jokes, nude, no longer clad in the
shadowy garments of more or less conventional propriety, danced like
bacchanals through the conversation, and kicked up heels to fire even
the weary men of society. He expanded into fantastic anecdote, and
mingled many a _bon mot_ with the blue spirals of his mounting
cigarette smoke. But to-night Mr. Smith's gentle, "I never smoke, thank
you," reminded him that the fate of Lord Reggie's anthem was hanging in
the balance. He resolved to tread warily among clerical prejudices, so,
lighting a cigarette, and pushing the claret away from him with one
plump hand, he drew his chair slowly towards Mr. Smith's, and a sweet
smile spread deliberately over his rather large and intelligent face.

"I was very much interested in your remark about doctrine and music at
dinner," he began in his most carefully modulated voice, "and I wanted
to pursue the subject a little farther, only the minds of ladies are so
curious and unexpected, that I thought it better to refrain. Have you
noticed that many women make a kind of profession of being shocked?"

"Surely no," said Mr. Smith, sipping his water with an inquiring air.

"Yes, positively it is so, especially if a truth about religion is
uttered. They are apt to think that all truths about religion are
blasphemous. It is wonderful how ready good women are to find b