he Dictator. All she knew was that she
was not quite herself at the time: the rest was mere doubt and misery.
And Helena Langley passed in society for being a girl who never cared in
the least what she said or what she did, so long as she was not
conventional.

To add to her concern, the Duchess of Deptford was announced. Now Helena
was very fond of the beautiful and bright little Duchess, with her
kindly heart, her utter absence of affectation, and her penetrating
eyes. She gathered herself up and went to meet her friend.

'My! but you are looking bad, child!' the genial Duchess said. She may
have been a year and a half or so older than Helena. 'What's the matter
with you, anyway? Why have you got those blue semicircles round your
eyes? Ain't you well?'

'Oh, yes, quite well,' Helena hastened to explain. 'Nothing is ever the
matter with _me_, Duchess. My father says Nature meant to make me a boy
and made a mistake at the last moment. I am the only girl he knows--so
he tells me--that never is out of sorts.'

'Well, then, my dear, that only proves the more certainly that Nature
distinctly meant you for a girl when she made you a girl.'

'Dear Duchess, how _do_ you explain that?'

'Because you have got the art of concealing your feelings, which men
have not got, anyhow,' the Duchess said, composedly. 'If you ain't out
of sorts about something--and with these blue semicircles under your
lovely eyes--well, then, a semicircle is not a semicircle, nor a girl a
girl. That's so.'

'Dear Duchess, never mind me. I am really in the rudest health----'

'And no troubles--brain, or heart, or anything?'

'Oh, no; none but those common to all human creatures.'

'Well, well, have it your own way,' the Duchess said, good-humouredly.
'You have got a kind father to look after you, anyway. How is dear Sir
Rupert?'

Helena explained that her father was very well, thank you, and the
conversation drifted away from those present to some of those absent.

'Seen Mr. Ericson lately?' the Duchess asked.

'Oh, yes, quite lately.' Helena did not explain how very lately it was
that she had seen him.

'I like him very much,' said the Duchess. 'He is real sweet, I think.'

'He is very charming,' Helena said.

'And his secretary, young--what is his name?'

'Mr. Hamilton?'

'Yes, yes, Mr. Hamilton. Don't you think he is just a lovely young man?'

'I like him immensely.'

'But so handsome, don't you think? Handsomer than Mr. Ericso