qualifications for excellence in which appear to be brute strength
and a blood-thirsty disposition; as witness Dunn there. I was positively
horrified last International. There he was, our own quiet, domestic,
gentle Dunn, raging through that howling mob of savages like a
bloody Bengal tiger.--Rather apt, that!--A truly awful and degrading
exhibition!"

"Ah, perfectly lovely!" murmured Miss Brodie ecstatically. "I can see
him yet."

"Miss Brodie, how can you!" exclaimed "Lily," casting up his eyes in
horror towards heaven. "But it was ever thus! In ancient days upon
the bloody sands of the arena, fair ladies were wont to gaze with
unrelenting eyes and thumbs turned down--or up, was it--?"

"Excellent! But how clever of them to gaze with their thumbs in that
way!"

"Please don't interrupt," said "Lily" severely; "I have just 'struck my
gait,' as that barbaric young Colonial, Martin, another of your bloody,
brawny band, would say. And here you sit, unblushing, glorying in their
disgusting deeds and making love open and unabashed to their captain!"

"Go away, 'Lily' or I'll hurt you," cried Dunn, his face a brilliant
crimson. "Come, get out!"

"But don't be uplifted," continued "Lily," ignoring him, "you are not
the first. By no means! It is always the last International captain, and
has been to my certain knowledge for the last ten years."

"Ten years!" exclaimed Miss Brodie in horrified accents. "You monster!
If you have no regard for my character you might at least respect my
age."

"Age! Dear Miss Brodie," ejaculated "Lily," "who could ever associate
age with your perennial youth?"

"Perennial! Wretch! If there is anything I am sensitive about, really
sensitive about, it is my age! Mr. Dunn, I beseech you, save me from
further insult! Dear 'Lily,' run away now. You are much too tired to
dance, and besides there is Mrs. Craig-Urquhart waiting to talk your
beloved Wagner-Tennyson theory; or what is the exact combination?
Mendelssohn-Browning, is it?"

"Oh, Miss Bessie!" cried "Lily" in a shocked voice, "how can
you? Mendelssohn-Browning! How awful! Do have some regard for the
affinities."

"Mr. Dunn, I implore you, save me! I can bear no more. There! A merciful
providence has accomplished my deliverance. They are going. Good-night,
'Lily.' Run away now. I want a word with Mr. Dunn."

"Oh, heartless cruelty!" exclaimed "Lily," in an agonised voice. "But
what can you expect from such associations?" And he h