ed shelves with an eye to the
effect of backs. She was flagrantly engaged throughout indeed in the
study of effect, which moreover, had the law of an extreme freshness not
inveterately prevailed there, might have been observed to be traceable
in the very detail of her own appearance. "Company" in short was in the
air and expectation in the picture. The flowers on the little tables
bloomed with a consciousness sharply taken up by the glitter of
nick-nacks and reproduced in turn in the light exuberance of cushions
on sofas and the measured drop of blinds in windows. The numerous
photographed friends in particular were highly prepared, with small
intense faces, each, that happened in every case to be turned to the
door. The pair of eyes most dilated perhaps was that of old Van, present
under a polished glass and in a frame of gilt-edged morocco that spoke
out, across the room, of Piccadilly and Christmas, and visibly widening
his gaze at the opening of the door, at the announcement of a name by a
footman and at the entrance of a gentleman remarkably like him save as
the resemblance was on the gentleman's part flattered. Vanderbank had
not been in the room ten seconds before he showed ever so markedly that
he had arrived to be kind. Kindness therefore becomes for us, by a quick
turn of the glass that reflects the whole scene, the high pitch of the
concert--a kindness that almost immediately filled the place, to
the exclusion of everything else, with a familiar friendly voice, a
brightness of good looks and good intentions, a constant though perhaps
sometimes misapplied laugh, a superabundance almost of interest,
inattention and movement.

The first thing the young man said was that he was tremendously glad she
had written. "I think it was most particularly nice of you." And this
thought precisely seemed, as he spoke, a flower of the general bloom--as
if the niceness he had brought in was so great that it straightway
converted everything to its image. "The only thing that upset me a
little," he went on, "was your saying that before writing it you had so
hesitated and waited. I hope very much, you know, that you'll never do
anything of that kind again. If you've ever the slightest desire to see
me--for no matter what reason, if there's ever the smallest thing of any
sort that I can do for you, I promise you I shan't easily forgive you if
you stand on ceremony. It seems to me that when people have known each
other as long as y