at moment. Mrs.
Windsor had a vague idea that all poor people lived upon pickles, and
she had commanded her housekeeper to lay in a large store of them for
this occasion. Having landed them safely upon his plate, Jimmy
proceeded to devour them, helping himself to some cold beef as a species
of condiment, and keeping an amazed eye all the time upon Amarinth, who
surveyed the horse-shoe table with a glance of comfortable and witty
superiority.

"I have composed a catch, Jimmy," he proceeded, "a beautiful rainbow
catch, which we will flute presently in the moonlight. Do you know
'Three Blind Mice'?"

"Yes, sir," answered Jimmy, with a sudden smile of radiant
understanding, while the little boys nearest leaned their round heads
forward, happy in hearing an expression which they could well
understand.

"How beautiful it is in its simplicity! My catch is even simpler and
more beautiful. We will sing it, Jimmy, as no nightingales could ever
sing it. Take some more of those walnuts. Their rich mahogany colour
reminds me of the background of a picture by Velasquez."

Jimmy took some more with wondering acquiescence, and Amarinth leaned
back negligently peeling a peach, and smiling--as if, having begun to
smile, he had fallen into a reverie and forgotten to stop.

Madame Valtesi was a little bored. Youth did not appeal to her at all,
except in young men, of whom she was pertinaciously fond. As to small
boys, she considered them an evil against which somebody ought to
legislate. These small boys, though they had been slow in beginning to
eat, were slower still in finishing. Their appetites seemed to grow
gradually but continuously, with what they fed upon, and it was
impossible for the tall footmen to take them unawares and remove their
plates, having regard to the fact that, as they never spoke, they were
always steadily eating. The feast seemed interminable.

"I am afraid they will all be very seedy to-morrow," she croaked to Mr.
Smith, whose asceticism seemed to have been left at home on this
occasion. "Surely they are bursting by this time."

"I trust not," he replied; "I sincerely trust not. Much food late at
night is certainly imprudent, but really I have not the heart to stop
them."

"But they will never stop. I believe they think it would be bad
manners."

Mr. Smith cast his eyes round, and, observing that the little boys'
faces were considerably flushed, and that an air of mere gourmandising
had decidedly set