elf would
not amuse her in the least. What place had it for her to smoke her
cigarettes in?

Eliza La Heu, then? Spite? The pleasure of taking something that
somebody else wanted? The pleasure of spoiling somebody else's pleasure?
Or, more accurately, the pleasure of power? Well, yes; that might be it,
if Hortense Rieppe were younger in years, and younger, especially, in
soul; but her museum was too richly furnished with specimens of the
chase, she had collected too many bits and bibelots from life's Hotel
Druot and the great bazaar of female competition, to pay so great a
price as marriage for merely John; particularly when a lady, even in
Newport, can have but one husband at a time in her collection. If she
did actually love John, as Beverly Rodgers had reluctantly come to
believe, it was most inappropriate in her! Had I followed out the train
of reasoning which lay coiled up inside the word inappropriate, I might
have reached the solution which eventually Hortense herself gave me,
and the jewelled recesses of her nature would have blazed still more
brilliantly to my eyes to-day; but in truth, my soul wasn't old enough
yet to work Hortense out by itself, unaided!

While Mrs. Gregory and Mrs. Weguelin sat on their chairs, and Hortense
sat on her bench, tea was brought and a table laid, behind whose
whiteness and silver Hortense began slight offices with cups and sugar
tongs. She looked inquiry at her visitors, in answer to which Mrs.
Gregory indicated acceptance, and Mrs. Weguelin refusal. The beauty of
Hortense's face had strangely increased since the arrival of these two
visitors. It shone resplendent behind the silver and the white cloth,
and her movement, as she gave the cup to Mrs. Gregory St. Michael, was
one of complete grace and admirable propriety. But once she looked away
from them in the direction of the path. Her two visitors rose and left
her, Mrs. Gregory setting her tea-cup down with a gesture that said
she would take no more, and, after their bows of farewell, Hortense sat
alone again pulling about the tea things.

I saw that by the table lay a card-case on the ground, evidently dropped
by Mrs. Gregory; but Hortense could not see it where she sat. Her quick
look along the path heralded more company and the General with more
chairs. Young people now began to appear, the various motions of whom
were more animated than the approaches and greetings and farewells of
their elders; chairs were moved and exc