and
youth in his eyes and brow.

"You do a little," she said, picking up a leaf and bending it about as
she spoke. "And I do hate feeling stupid."

"You--stupid!" he ejaculated, and laughed.

"You must know what I mean," she added.

"You are beautiful, Leonetta," he said, "and that in itself is the
greatest accomplishment, because it cannot be acquired."

"I thought you hadn't noticed me at all," she observed, trying to
conceal the rapture she felt.

"I don't know about that,--one can't help looking at people who are
constantly about one."

He made an effort to give this remark the ring of indifference, and he
succeeded.

"But that's exactly it!" she cried. "They say that beautiful people are
always stupid. That's why I say----"

"Nobody who knows anything about it says that," he observed, as if he
were stating an interesting axiomatic principle and without a trace of
the leer of the adulator.

"Really?"

"Of course not," he pursued. "For a face to be beautiful, it must have
certain proportions. It must have a certain length of nose, a certain
length of chin, and above all a certain height of brow. Do you
understand?"

"I think so," she replied.

"Well, then,--what is the obvious conclusion?"

"I'm afraid I don't see it," she said.

"I say a certain height of brow is essential to a well-proportioned
face," he remarked with cool persuasiveness. "But what lies beneath the
brow? Come, Leonetta, you know!"

"The brain?" she suggested.

"Of course," he exclaimed. "And what is more, beneath the brow lies the
thinking part of the brain. So that in order really to have a fair face
we must have a fair proportion of brain."

She smiled and bowed her head.

"Peachy's clever, isn't she?" she demanded. "So I suppose we girls ought
not to be so very dull."

"Don't believe those who tell you beautiful people are stupid. It is the
ugly who say that to console themselves. Just as the fools of the world
write books about geniuses being mad."

She laughed. "You do say funny things!" she cried.

"Funny?" he repeated.

"Well, true things then. I wish everybody talked as you do. One feels so
much safer to know the truth about everything."

At this point, however, Cleopatra came towards them from the house.

"I've found Edith at last," she exclaimed. "She's with the others in the
marquee near the rose garden. We're just going to have tea. Are you
coming?"

Lord Henry jumped down from his perch, and Leonet