he least little shade of unreality."

"I know what you mean; but she is so beautiful that one would never
notice it. What a power such beauty is! I should be afraid of it." Lois
was speaking almost to herself, and Keith, as she was deeply absorbed in
observing Mrs. Lancaster, gazed at her with renewed interest.

"I'd so much rather be loved for myself'," the girl went on earnestly.
"I think it is one of the compensations that those who want such
beauty have-"

"Well, it is one of the things which you must always hold merely as a
conjecture, for you can never know by experience."

She glanced up at him with a smile, half pleased, half reproving.

"Do you think I am the sort that likes flattery? I believe you think we
are all silly. I thought you were too good a friend of mine to attempt
that line with me."

Keith declared that all women loved flattery, but protested, of course,
that he was not flattering her.

"Why should I?" he laughed.

"Oh, just because you think it will please me, and because it is so
easy. It is so much less trouble. It takes less intellect, and you don't
think I am worth spending intellect on."

This Keith stoutly denied.

She gave him a fleeting glance out of her brown eyes. "She, however, is
as good as she is handsome," she said, returning to Mrs. Lancaster.

"Yes; she is one of those who 'do good by stealth, and blush to find it
fame.'"

"There are not a great many like that around here," Lois smiled. "Here
comes one now?" she added, as Mrs. Nailor moved up to them. She was "so
glad" to see Miss Huntington out. "You must like your Winter in New
York?" she said, smiling softly. "You have such opportunities for seeing
interesting people-like Mr. Keith, here?" She turned her eyes on Keith.

"Oh, yes. I do. I see so many entertaining people," said Lois,
innocently.

"They are very kind to you?" purred the elder lady.

"Most condescending." Lois turned her eyes toward Keith with a little
sparkle in them; but as she read his appreciation a smile stole
into them.

Dinner was solemnly announced, and the couples swept out in that stately
manner appropriate to solemn occasions, such as marriages, funerals, and
fashionable dinners.

"Do you know your place?" asked Keith of Lois, to whom he had been
assigned.

"Don't I? A governess and not know her place! You must help me through."

"Through what?"

"The dinner. You do not understand what a tremendous responsibility you
have. This