e right thing,
though bored by the necessity. He was good-looking in an ugly way, which
gave him an air of restrained capacity for melodrama, and made women
think him interesting. Somebody with a knack of disparagement said that
he was too much expressed. It rather added to his unpopularity that he
was a man whom women usually took with preposterous seriousness--all but
Kitty Vesey, who charmed and held him by her outrageous liberties.
When Mrs. Vesey chaffed him, he felt picturesque. He was also aware of
inspiring entertainment for the lookers-on, with the feeling at such
times that he, too, was an amused spectator. This was, of course, their
public attitude. In private there was sentiment, and they talked about
the tyranny of society, or delivered themselves of ideas suggested by
works of fiction which everybody simply HAD to read.

For a week Mrs. Innes looked on, apparently indifferent, rather
apparently not observing; and an Assistant Secretary in the Home
Department began to fancy that his patience in teaching the three
dachshund puppies tricks was really appreciated. He was an on-coming
Assistant Secretary, with other conspicuous parts, and hitherto his time
had been too valuable to spend upon ladies' dachshunds. Mrs. Innes
had selected him well. There came an evening when, at a dance at the
Lieutenant-Governor's, Mrs. Innes was so absorbed in what the Assistant
Secretary was saying to her, as she passed on his arm, that she did
not see Captain Drake in the corridor at all, although he had carefully
broken an engagement to walk with Kitty Vesey that very afternoon,
as the beginning of gradual and painless reform in her direction. His
unrewarded virtue rose up and surprised him with the distinctness of
its resentment; and while his expression was successfully amused,
his shoulders and the back of his neck, as well as the hand on
his moustache, spoke of discipline which promised to be efficient.
Reflection assured him that discipline was after all deserved, and a
quarter of an hour later found him wagging his tail, so to speak, over
Mrs. Innes's programme in a corner pleasantly isolated. The other chair
was occupied by the Assistant Secretary. Captain Drake represented an
interruption, and was obliged to take a step towards the nearest lamp to
read the card. Three dances were rather ostentatiously left, and Drake
initialled them all. He brought back the card with a bow, which spoke
of dignity under bitter usage, to