had been one long struggle to disguise, was for once to be allowed full
play. The _tableaux_ were to represent paintings by certain
fellow-artists and friends; not actual pictures by them, but pictures
which they might have painted, and the supposed authors were allowed a
right of veto or criticism.

A stage of Renaissance design, which did not jar with the surrounding
architecture, was erected in the depth of the portico at the end of the
Hellenic room.

The human material at Meres's command was physically admirable. He had
long been the chosen portrait-painter of wealth and fashion, and there
was not a beauty in Society, with the biggest "S," who was not delighted
to lend her charms for his purpose. The young men might grumble for
form's sake, but at the bottom of their hearts they were equally
sensible to the compliment of being asked to appear. It was when it came
to the moulding of the material for artistic purposes, that the trouble
began. The English have produced great actors, but in the bulk they have
little natural aptitude for the stage; and what they have is discouraged
by a social training which strains after the ideal composure, the few
movements, the glassy eye of a waxwork. Only a small and chosen number,
it is true, fully attain that ideal; but when we see them we recognize
with a start, almost with a shudder, that it is there, the perfection of
our deportment.

Cyril Meres was, however, an admirable stage-manager, exquisite in tact,
in temper, and urbane patience. The results of his prolonged training
were wonderful; yet again and again he found it impossible to carry out
his idea without placing his cousin Mrs. Stewart at the vital point of
his picture. She was certainly not the most physically beautiful woman
there, but she was unrivalled by any other in the grace, the variety,
the meaning of her gestures, the dramatic transformations of her
countenance. She was Pandora, she was Hope, she was Lady Hammerton, she
was the Vampire, and she was the Queen of Faerie.

There is jealousy on the amateur stage as well as on the professional,
and ladies of social position, accustomed to see their beauty lauded in
the newspapers, saw no reason why Mrs. Stewart should be thrust to the
front of half of the pictures. Lady Langham, the "smart" Socialist, with
whom George Goring had flirted last season, to Lady Augusta's real
dismay, was the leading rival candidate for Mildred's roles. But Lady
Langham never gues