was witness of Mr. Hepburn's presentation of a
costly China vase, to repair the breach in her array of ornaments, and
excuse a visit. Judging by the absence of any blow within, he saw not a
sign of coquettry. Some such visit had been anticipated by the prescient
woman, so there was no reddening. She brought about an exchange of
sentences between him and her furious admirer, sparing either of them a
glimpse of which was the sacrifice to the other, amusing them both.
Dacier could allow Mr. Hepburn to outsit him; and he left them, proud of
his absolute confidence in her.

She was mistaken in imagining that her social vivacity, mixed with
comradeship of the active intellect, was the charm which kept Mr. Percy
Dacier temperate when he well knew her to distinguish him above her
courtiers. Her powers of dazzling kept him tame; they did not stamp her
mark on him. He was one of the order of highly polished men, ignorant of
women, who are impressed for long terms by temporary flashes, that hold
them bound until a fresh impression comes, to confirm or obliterate the
preceding. Affairs of the world he could treat competently; he had a head
for high politics and the management of men; the feminine half of the
world was a confusion and a vexation to his intelligence, characterless;
and one woman at last appearing decipherable, he fancied it must be owing
to her possession of character, a thing prized the more in women because
of his latent doubt of its existence. Character, that was the mark he
aimed at; that moved him to homage as neither sparkling wit nor
incomparable beauty, nor the unusual combination, did. To be
distinguished by a woman of character (beauty and wit for jewellery), was
his minor ambition in life, and if Fortune now gratified it, he owned to
the flattery. It really seemed by every test that she had the quality.
Since the day when he beheld her by the bedside of his dead uncle, and
that one on the French sea-sands, and again at Copsley, ghostly white out
of her wrestle with death, bleeding holy sweat of brow for her friend,
the print of her features had been on him as an index of depth of
character, imposing respect and admiration--a sentiment imperilled by her
consent to fly with him. Her subsequent reserve until they met--by an
accident that the lady at any rate was not responsible for, proved the
quality positively. And the nature of her character, at first suspected,
vanquished him more, by comparison, than her