it seemed as though he had come down from
the heavens,--as would have befitted his godship. He was a great
favourite with Mrs. Brownlow, who, having heard that he was heir
to a very large property, thought that his extravagance became him.
According to her views it was his duty to spend a good deal of money,
and his duty also to marry Clarissa Underwood. As he was as yet
unmarried to any one else, she hardly doubted that he would do his
duty. She was a sanguine old lady, who always believed that things
would go right. She bustled and fussed on the present occasion
with the very evident intention of getting a seat for him next to
Clarissa; but Clarissa was as active in avoiding such an arrangement,
and Ralph soon found himself placed between Mary Bonner and a very
deaf old lady, who was always present at Mrs. Brownlow's tea-parties.
"I suppose this has all been got up in your honour," he said to Mary.
She smiled, and shook her head. "Oh, but it has. I know the dear old
lady's ways so well! She would never allow a new Underwood to be at
the villa for a month without having a tea-party to consecrate the
event."

"Isn't she charming, Mr. Newton;--and so pretty?"

"No end of charming, and awfully pretty. Why are we all in here
instead of out in the garden?"

"Mrs. Brownlow thought that it was cold."

"With the thermometer at 80 degrees! What do you think, who ought to
know what hot weather means? Are you chilly?"

"Not in the least. We West Indians never find this climate cold
the first year. Next year I don't doubt that I shall be full of
rheumatism all over, and begging to be taken back to the islands."

Clarissa watched them from over the way as though every word spoken
between them had been a treason to herself. And yet she had almost
been rude to old Mrs. Brownlow in the manner in which she had placed
herself on one side of the circle when the old lady had begged her to
sit on the other. Certainly, had she heard all that was said between
her lover and her cousin, there was nothing in the words to offend
her. She did not hear them; but she could see that Ralph looked into
Mary's beautiful face, and that Mary smiled in a demure, silent,
self-assured way which was already becoming odious to Clarissa.
Clarissa herself, when Ralph looked into her face, would blush and
turn away, and feel herself unable to bear the gaze of the god.

In a few minutes there came to be a sudden move, and all the young
people trooped bac