is approval.

That association had grown, Jonah's gourd-like, during the last six
weeks, until, as he rather uneasily noted, the two were hardly ever
apart. Luncheons, teas, picnics, excursions, succeeded one another.
Afternoons of tennis in the hotel grounds, the athletic gregarious
Binning and his two pupils, Peregrine Ditton and Harry Ellice in
attendance. Sometimes the latter's sister, Mary Ellice, joined the
company--when Lady Hermione condescended to spare her--or the long-backed
Miss Maud Callowgas. Afternoons of reading and song, too, supplied by
Marshall Wace.--Carteret felt self-reproachful, yet knew his charity
too often threatened to stop short of the young man Wace--though the
beggar had a voice to draw tears from a stone, plague him!--At intervals,
all-day expeditions were undertaken to Monte Carlo, or shopping raids
upon Cannes or Nice.

Yes, verily--as he reflected--Henrietta Frayling did keep the ball
rolling with truly Anglo-Indian frivolity and persistence, here in the
heart of Europe! And was that altogether wholesome for Damaris? He
delighted to have the beautiful young creature enjoy herself, spread her
wings, take her place among the courted and acclaimed. But he prized her
too highly not to be ambitious for her; and would have preferred her
social education to be conducted on more dignified and authorized lines,
in the great world of London, namely, or Paris. When all came to all,
this was hardly good enough.

No one, he honestly admitted, trumpeted that last truth more loudly than
Henrietta--at times. Nevertheless she went on and on, making the business
of this rather second-rate pleasure-seeking daily of greater importance.
How could Damaris be expected to discriminate, to retain her sense of
relative values, in the perpetual scrimmage, the unceasing rush? Instinct
and nobility of nature go an immensely long way as preservatives--thank
God for that--still, where you have unsophistication, inexperience, a
holy ignorance, to deal with, it is unwise to trust exclusively to their
saving grace. Even the finest character is the safer--so he supposed--for
some moulding and direction in its first contact with the world, if it is
to come through the ordeal unscathed and unbesmirched. And to ask such
moulding and direction of Henrietta Frayling was about as useful as
asking a humming-bird to draw a water-cart.

He was still fond of Henrietta and derived much silent entertainment from
witnessing her m