with Mr. Bennet.

"Nothing I know of. He's just our prize debutante's delight."

"Why.... What?"

"Lady-killer," he amplified. "All the girls are crazy about him."

"I don't wonder!" Arethusa's own admiration was wholly undisguised by
now. "He's the handsomest man I ever saw!" she added recklessly.

"He's handsome enough, I reckon, but he knows it almost too well. And
he just hates himself!"

"That's a horrid thing to say about anybody; I don't believe it at all!
And how on earth could he help knowing he's good-looking if he ever
looks in the mirror! There's no harm in knowing you're good-looking if
you are!"

The subject of this discussion looked far more as those charming
gentlemen pictured in the advertising sections of our various current
magazines to show the superiority of certain brands of collars and
other necessary articles of manly garb were intended to look than the
artists have ever been able to make the pictures. He was superbly tall
and broad of shoulder; in every way he fulfilled the most exacting
requirements of what a Hero should be. No dream of a Prince Charming
could have formed a being half so well-fitted for the role as this
living Reality.

He wore his faultless dress clothes as if they had been a veritable
part of him, not something donned for the few hours of this evening.
And he had gold-tipped eyelashes every bit as long as Arethusa's own
(she could tell that they were even so far away as she sat from him),
and the most irresistible of smiles. He smiled with commendable
frequency. Perhaps he knew that his rows of teeth were as perfect as
ordinary human teeth could very well be, and that this superlative
smile was in consequence no trifling addition to his other attractions
of person. He had a little trick of flinging his head back when he
laughed aloud, that showed to still greater advantage all of these
wonderful teeth, and his eyelashes, and even called attention to the
perfect straightness of his handsome nose.

He laughed for Arethusa's benefit as she watched him, and she smiled in
sympathy for such a charming laugh, although she was so far across the
room from him she could have no idea why he laughed.

And then she gazed and gazed at him, unashamed; a tiny sigh fluttered
through her parted red lips.

"I wish I could meet Him!"

"That's perfectly simple," remarked Mr. Watts. "Introductions haven't
gone out yet, as I have heard." His tone was scornful, but it was all
lost on