is not a nonentity. Far from it! Ten years
ago, when I was leaving Cambridge, he was certainly one of the most
distinguished of the young Oxford tutors.'

'Another instance of what university reputation is worth!' said Lady
Charlotte scornfully. It was clear that even in the case of a beauty
whom she thought it beneath him to marry, she was not pleased to see her
nephew ousted by the _force majeure_ of a rival--and that rival whom she
regarded as an utter nobody, having neither marketable eccentricity, nor
family, nor social brilliance to recommend him.

Flaxman understood her perplexity and watched her with critical, amused
eyes.

'I should like to know--' he said presently, with a curious slowness
and suavity,--'I should greatly like to know why you asked him here
to-night?'

'You know perfectly well that I should ask anybody--a convict, a
crossing sweeper--if I happened to be half an hour in the same room with
him!'

Flaxman laughed.

'Well, it may be convenient to-night,' he said reflectively. 'What are
we to do--some thought-reading?'

'Yes. It isn't a crush! I have only asked about thirty or forty people.
Mr. Denman is to manage it.'

She mentioned an amateur thought-reader greatly in request at the
moment.

Flaxman cogitated for a while and then propounded a little plan to his
aunt, to which she, after some demur, agreed.

'I want to make a few notes,' he said dryly, when it was arranged; 'I
should be glad to satisfy myself.'

When the Miss Leyburns were announced, Rose, though the younger, came
in first. She always took the lead by a sort of natural right, and Agnes
never dreamt of protesting. To-night the sisters were in white. Some
soft creamy stuff was folded and draped about Rose's slim shapely figure
in such a way as to bring out all its charming roundness and grace. Her
neck and arms bore the challenge of the dress victoriously. Her red-gold
hair gleamed in the light of Lady Charlotte's innumerable candles. A
knot of dusky blue feathers on her shoulder, and a Japanese fan of the
some color, gave just that touch of purpose and art which the spectators
seems to claim as the tribute answering to his praise in the dress of a
young girl. She moved with perfect self-possession, distributing a
few smiling looks to the people she knew as she advanced toward Lady
Charlotte. Anyone with a discerning eye could have seen that she was in
that stage of youth when a beautiful woman is like a statue to whic