ring his hat. Dark,
full-bearded, slender, with hands like a woman's, quiet of manner yet
affable, he was the most picturesque person at the cottage. But there
was always something smoldering in those sleepy eyes of his that
suggested to Kitty a mockery. It was not that recognizable mockery of
all those visiting Englishmen who held themselves complacently superior
to their generous American hosts. It was as though he were silently
laughing at all he saw, at all which happened about him, as if he stood
in the midst of some huge joke which he alone was capable of
understanding: so Kitty weighed him.

He did not seem to care particularly for women; he never hovered about
them, offering little favors and courtesies; rather, he let them come
to him. Nor did he care for dancing. But he was always ready to make
up a table at bridge; and a shrewd capable player he was, too.

The music in the ballroom stopped.

"Will you be so good, Miss Killigrew, as to tell me why you Americans
call a palace like this--a cottage?" Lord Monckton's voice was
pleasing, with only a slight accent.

"I'm sure I do not know. If it were mine, I'd call it a villa."

"Quite properly."

"Do you like Americans?"

"I have no preference for any people. I prefer individuals. I had
much rather talk to an enlightened Chinaman than to an unenlightened
white man."

"I am afraid you are what they call blase."

"Perhaps I am not quite at ease yet. I was buffeted about a deal in
the old days."

Lord Monckton dropped back into the wicker chair, in the deep shadow.
Kitty did not move. She wondered what Thomas was doing. (Thomas was
rubbing ointment on his raw knuckles.)

"I am very fond of the sea," remarked Lord Monckton. "I have seen some
odd parts of it. Every man has his Odyssey, his Aeneid."

Aeneid. It seemed to Kitty that her body had turned that instant into
marble as cold as that under her palms.

The coal of the man's cigar glowed intermittently. She could see
nothing else.

Aeneid--Enid.

CHAPTER XVI

Thomas slammed the ball with a force which carried it far over the wire
backstop.

"You must not drive them so hard, Mr. Webb; at least, not up. Drive
them down. Try it again."

Tennis looked so easy from the sidelines that Thomas believed all he
had to do was to hit the ball whenever he saw it within reach; but
after a few experiments he accepted the fact that every game required a
certain talent, quite as d