ur was busy with Dickie's name,
his possessions and personality. The legend of the man--a thing often
so very other than the man himself--grew, Jonah's gourd-like, in wild
luxuriance. All those many persons who had known Lady Calmady before
her retirement from the world, hastened to renew acquaintance with her.
While a larger, and it may be added less distinguished, section of
society, greedy of intimacy with whoso, or whatsoever, might represent
the fashion of the hour, crowded upon their heels. Invitations showered
down thick as snowflakes in January. To _get_ Sir Richard and Lady
Calmady was to secure the success of your entertainment, whatever that
entertainment might be--to secure it the more certainly because the two
persons in question exercised a rather severe process of selection, and
were by no means to be had for the asking.

All these things Ludovic Quayle noted, in a spirit which he flattered
himself was cynical, but which was, in point of fact, rather anxiously
affectionate. It had occurred to him that this sudden and unlooked-for
popularity might turn Richard's head a little, and develop in him a
morbid self-love, that _vanite de monstre_ not uncommon to persons
disgraced by nature. He had feared Richard might begin to plume
himself--as is the way of such persons--less upon the charming
qualities and gifts which he possessed in common with many other
charming persons, than upon those deplorable peculiarities which
differentiated him from them. And it was with a sincerity of relief, of
which he felt a trifle ashamed, that, as time went on, Mr. Quayle found
himself unable to trace any such tendency, that he observed his
friend's wholesome pride and carefulness to avoid all exposure of his
deformity. Richard would drive anywhere, and to any festivity, where
driving was possible. He would go to the theatre and opera. He would
dine at a few houses, and entertain largely at his own house. But he
would not put foot to ground in the presence of the many women who
courted him, or in that of the many men who treated him with rather
embarrassed kindness and courtesy to his face and spoke of him with
pitying reserve behind his back.

Other persons, besides Mr. Quayle, watched Richard Calmady's social
successes with interest. Among them was Honoria St. Quentin. That young
lady had been spending some weeks with Sir Reginald and Lady Aldham in
Midlandshire, and had now accompanied them up to town. Lady Aldham's
health