ssolved from
her thin young beauty. She turned from Cliffe, and the Dean saw her
quiver with submission.

"I think I could say some 'Polyeucte,'" she said, gently.

The Dean clapped his hands and rose.

"Lady Grosville," he said, raising his voice--"Ladies and gentlemen,
Lady Kitty has promised to say us some more French poetry. You remember
how admirably she recited last night. But this is Sunday, and she will
give us something in a different vein."

Lady Grosville, who had risen impatiently, sat down again. There was a
general movement; chairs were turned or drawn forward till a circle
formed. Meanwhile the Dean consulted with Kitty and resumed:

"Lady Kitty will recite a scene from Corneille's beautiful tragedy of
'Polyeucte'--the scene in which Pauline, after witnessing the martyrdom
of her husband, who has been beheaded for refusing to sacrifice to the
gods, returns from the place of execution so melted by the love and
sacrifice she has beheld that she opens her heart then and there to the
same august faith and pleads for the same death."

The Dean seated himself, and Kitty stepped into the centre of the
circle. She thought a moment, her lips moving, as though she recalled
the lines. Then she looked down at her bare arms, and dress, frowned,
and suddenly approached Lady Edith Manley.

"May I have that?" she said, pointing to a lace cloak that lay on Lady
Edith's knee. "I am rather cold."

Lady Edith handed it to her, and she threw it round her.

"Actress!" said Cliffe, under his breath, with a grin of amusement.

At any rate, her impulse served her well. Her form and dress disappeared
under a cloud of white. She became in a flash, so to speak,
evangelized--a most innocent and spiritual apparition. Her beautiful
head, her kindled and transfigured face, her little hand on the white
folds, these alone remained to mingle their impression with the austere
and moving tragedy which her lips recited. Her audience looked on at
first with the embarrassed or hostile air which is the Englishman's
natural protection against the great things of art; then for those who
understood French the high passion and the noble verse began to tell;
while those who could not follow were gradually enthralled by the
gestures and tones with which the slight, vibrating creature, whom but
ten minutes before most of them had regarded as a mere noisy flirt,
suggested and conveyed the finest and most compelling shades of love,
faith, and