ear
thee."'

Notwithstanding Christopher's affected carelessness, that evening saw a
great deal of nicety bestowed upon the operation of wrapping up and
sending off the song. He dropped it into the box and heard it fall, and
with the curious power which he possessed of setting his wisdom to watch
any particular folly in himself that it could not hinder, speculated as
he walked on the result of this first tangible step of return to his old
position as Ethelberta's lover.

9. A LADY'S DRAWING-ROOMS--ETHELBERTA'S DRESSING-ROOM

It was a house on the north side of Hyde Park, between ten and eleven in
the evening, and several intelligent and courteous people had assembled
there to enjoy themselves as far as it was possible to do so in a neutral
way--all carefully keeping every variety of feeling in a state of
solution, in spite of any attempt such feelings made from time to time to
crystallize on interesting subjects in hand.

'Neigh, who is that charming woman with her head built up in a novel way
even for hair architecture--the one with her back towards us?' said a man
whose coat fitted doubtfully to a friend whose coat fitted well.

'Just going to ask for the same information,' said Mr. Neigh, determining
the very longest hair in his beard to an infinitesimal nicety by drawing
its lower portion through his fingers. 'I have quite forgotten--cannot
keep people's names in my head at all; nor could my father either--nor
any of my family--a very odd thing. But my old friend Mrs. Napper knows
for certain.' And he turned to one of a small group of middle-aged
persons near, who, instead of skimming the surface of things in general,
like the rest of the company, were going into the very depths of them.

'O--that is the celebrated Mrs. Petherwin, the woman who makes rhymes and
prints 'em,' said Mrs. Napper, in a detached sentence, and then continued
talking again to those on the other side of her.

The two loungers went on with their observations of Ethelberta's
headdress, which, though not extraordinary or eccentric, did certainly
convey an idea of indefinable novelty. Observers were sometimes half
inclined to think that her cuts and modes were acquired by some secret
communication with the mysterious clique which orders the livery of the
fashionable world, for--and it affords a parallel to cases in which
clever thinkers in other spheres arrive independently at one and the same
conclusion--Ethelberta's fashion