, and
not at all inclined to trouble herself overmuch about a husband.

The rooms were fairly full; and the entry of the Duchess and
Mademoiselle Le Breton was one of the incidents of the evening, and
visibly quickened the pulses of the assembly. The little Dresden-china
Duchess, with her clothes, her jewels, and her smiles, had been, since
her marriage, one of the chief favorites of fashion. She had been
brought up in the depths of the country, and married at eighteen. After
six years she was not in the least tired of her popularity or its
penalties. All the life in her dainty person, her glancing eyes, and
small, smiling lips rose, as it were, to meet the stir that she evoked.
She vaguely saw herself as Titania, and played the part with childish
glee. And like Titania, as she had more than once ruefully reflected,
she was liable to be chidden by her lord.

But the Duke was on this particular evening debating high subjects in
the House of Lords, and the Duchess was amusing herself. Sir Wilfrid
Bury, who arrived not long after his goddaughter, found her the centre
first of a body-guard of cousins, including among them apparently a
great many handsome young men, and then of a small crowd, whose vaguely
smiling faces reflected the pleasure that was to be got, even at a
distance, out of her young and merry beauty.

Julie Le Breton was not with her. But in the next room Sir Wilfrid soon
perceived the form and face which, in their own way, exacted quite as
much attention from the world as those of the Duchess. She was talking
with many people, and, as usual, he could not help watching her. Never
yet had he seen her wide, black eyes more vivid than they were to-night.
Now, as on his first sight of her, he could not bring himself to call
them beautiful. Yet beautiful they were, by every canon of form and
color. No doubt it was something in their expression that offended his
own well-drilled instincts.

He found himself thinking suspicious thoughts about most of the
conversations in which he saw her engaged. Why was she bestowing those
careful smiles on that intolerable woman, Lady Froswick? And what an
acquaintance she seemed to have among these elderly soldiers, who might
at all times be reckoned on at Lady Hubert's parties! One gray-haired
veteran after another recalled himself to her attention, got his few
minutes with her, and passed on smiling. Certain high officials, too,
were no less friendly. Her court, it seemed t