s vanity succumbed. A few minutes later the
supper guests in the tent of the <i>elite</i> saw the entrance of a darkly
splendid Duke of Alva, with a little sandalled goddess. All compact, it
seemed, of ivory and fire, on his arm.

XI

The spring freshness of London, had long since departed. A crowded
season; much animation in Parliament, where the government, to its own
amazement, had rather gained than lost ground; industrial trouble at
home, and foreign complications abroad; and in London the steady growth
of a new plutocracy, the result, so far, of American wealth and American
brides. In the first week of July, the outward things of the moment
might have been thus summed up by any careful observer.

On a certain Tuesday night, the debate on a private member's bill
unexpectedly collapsed, and the House rose early. Ashe left the House
with his secretary, but parted from him at the corner of Birdcage Walk,
and crossed the park alone. He meant to join Kitty at a party in
Piccadilly; there was just time to go home and dress; and he walked at a
quick pace.

Two members sitting on the same side of the House with himself were also
going home. One of them noticed the Under-Secretary.

"A very ineffective statement Ashe made to-night--don't you think so?"
he said to his companion.

"Very! Really, if the government can't take up a stronger line, the
general public will begin to think there's something in it."

"Oh, if you only shriek long enough and sharp enough in England
something's sure to come of it. Cliffe and his group have been playing a
very shrewd game. The government will get their agreement approved all
right, but Cliffe has certainly made some people on our side uneasy.
However--"

"However, what?" said the other, after a moment.

"I wish I thought that were the only reason for Ashe's change of tone,"
said the first speaker, slowly.

"What do you mean?"

The two were intimate personal friends, belonging, moreover, to a group
of evangelical families well known in English life; but even so, the
answer came with reluctance:

"Well, you see, it's not very easy to grapple in public with the man
whose name all smart London happens to be coupling with that of your
wife!"

"I say"--the other stood still, in genuine consternation and
distress--"you don't mean to say that there's that in it!"

"You notice that the difference is not in <i>what</i> Ashe says, but in <i>how</i>
he says it. He avoids al