he comes to anchor here, and looks around him.

He is quite enjoying himself, and is making private comments on his
friends that I have no doubt would be rapturously received by them could
they only hear them, when he wakes to the fact that two people have come
to a standstill just before him. They are engaged in not only an
animated but an amicable discussion, and are laughing gayly: as laughter
is even more distinguishable in a crowd than the voice when in repose,
Mr. Kelly is attracted by theirs, and to his astonishment discovers that
his near neighbors are the deadly enemies of an hour agone,--_i. e._,
Mrs. Bohun and Ulic Ronayne.

No faintest trace of spleen is to be discovered in their tones. All is
once more sunshine. Past storms are forgotten. They have evidently been
carrying on their discussion for a considerable time whilst dancing,
because it is only the very end of it that is reserved for Mr. Kelly's
delectation. He, poor man, is hemmed in on every side, and finds to his
horror he cannot make his escape. This being so, he resigns himself with
a grim sense of irony to the position allotted him by fate, and being a
careful man, makes up his mind, too, to derive what amusement from it
that he can.

"So you see everything depends upon judgment," says the fair widow,
fanning herself languidly, but smiling archly.

"A good deal, certainly."

"_Everything_, _I_ say. Determination to succeed, and the power to do
it, are strong in themselves; but judgment tempers all things. And how
few possess all three!"

"I, at least, am grateful for that. If every one was endowed with those
three irresistible forces, I should have a bad chance. I should be but
one among so many. Then it could only be decided by brute force."

"What could?" asks she, turning a fair but amazed face up to his.

"Oh, nothing!" returns he, with some confusion. "Only some silly thought
of my own private brain,--not the part I was devoting to your argument.
Forgive me. You were saying----"

"That there is a tremendous amount of feebleness in most natures. The
real clever thing is to be able to see when an opportunity for good
arises, and then to grasp it. Most people can't see it, you know."

"Others _can_!" says Mr. Ronayne. As he speaks he passes his arm round
her pretty waist and smiles saucily into her eyes.

"What!" exclaims she, smiling in turn, "am I an opportunity, then?"

"The sweetest one I know, and so I seize it," says the aud