to do
the same, whoever the chosen man might be, provided always that he was a
man--and in this regard there could be no doubt about Lord Lester
Leighton; so as they walked away she said to Nitocris with a confidence
which was almost girlish:

"His Lordship is just delightful--now, isn't he, Miss Marmion? Just the
sort that you seem to raise over here, and nowhere else. Tells you that
you have to take him for a gentleman and nothing else in the first three
words he says to you--and Brenda seems to like him. I never saw her go
off with a man like that on such short notice, for Brenda's pretty proud
and cold with men, for all her nice ways and high spirits."

"You would have to search a long time, Mrs van Huysman," replied
Nitocris very demurely, "before you found a better type of the real
English gentleman than Lord Leighton. His family is one of the oldest in
the country, and, unlike too many of our noble families, the Kynestons
have no bar-sinister on their escutcheon."

"I guess you're getting a little beyond me there, Miss Marmion. I don't
think I ever heard of a--what is it?--a bar-sinister, before. What might
it be?"

Nitocris flushed very faintly as she replied:

"I think I can explain it best, Mrs van Huysman, by saying that it means
that Lord Leighton's ancestors have preserved their honour unstained
through many generations. Of course, you know that some of our so-called
noble families in England spring from anything but a noble origin. There
are not a few English dukes and earls who would find it rather awkward
to introduce their great-great-grandmothers to their present circle of
friends."

"I should think they would, from what I have read of them, the shameless
creatures!" said Mrs van Huysman, with a sniff of real republican
virtue.

Then the Prince joined them, and the conversation was promptly switched
off on to another line of interest.

Tea was served on the Old Lawn under the shade of the great cedars,
which made its greatest adornment; and when everybody had had what he or
she wanted, and the men had lit their cigarettes--and the Professors, by
special permission, their pipes--Nitocris looked across a couple of
tables at Oscarovitch, whom she had so far managed most adroitly to keep
at an endurable distance, and said:

"Now, Prince, if your friend the Adept is in the mood to astonish us
with his wonders, perhaps you will be good enough to tell him that we
are all ready and willing to be st