to her, aunt."

"For a short time. I did not enjoy her company. She is so mercilessly
realistic, she takes all the color out of life. Everything about her,
even her speech, is sharp-lined as the edge of a knife. She could make
Bryce's life very miserable."

"Perhaps it might turn out the other way. Bryce Denning has capacities
in the same line. How far apart, how far above every man there, stood
Basil Stanhope!"

"He is strikingly handsome and graceful, and I am sure that his luminous
serenity does not arise from apathy. I should say he was a man of very
strong and tender feelings."

"And he gives all the strength and tenderness of his feelings to Dora.
Men are strange creatures."

"Who directed Dora's dress this evening?"

"Herself or her maid. I had nothing to do with it. The effect was
stunning."

"Fred thought so. In fact, Fred Hostyn----"

"Fell in love with her."

"Exactly. 'Fell,' that is the word--fell prostrate. Usually the lover
of to-day walks very timidly and carefully into the condition, step
by step, and calculating every step before he takes it. Fred
plunged headlong into the whirling vortex. I am very sorry. It is a
catastrophe."

"I never witnessed the accident before. I have heard of men getting
wounds and falls, and developing new faculties in consequence, but we
saw the phenomenon take place this evening."

"Love, if it be love, is known in a moment. Man who never saw the
sun before would know it was the sun. In Fred's case it was an
instantaneous, impetuous passion, flaming up at the sight of such
unexpected beauty--a passion that will probably fade as rapidly as it
rose."

"Fred is not that kind of a man, aunt. He does not like every one and
everything, but whoever or whatever he does like becomes a lasting part
of his life. Even the old chairs and tables at Mostyn are held as sacred
objects by him, though I have no doubt an American girl would trundle
them off to the garret. It is the same with the people. He actually
regards the Rawdons as belonging in some way to the Mostyns; and I do
not believe he has ever been in love before."

"Nonsense!"

"He was so surprised by the attack. If it had been the tenth or
twentieth time he would have taken it more philosophically; besides, if
he had ever loved any woman, he would have gone on loving her, and we
should have known all about her perfections by this time."

"Dora is nearly a married woman, and Mostyn knows it."

"Nearly may