nd.

"You told me he came from the wilds and was quite unsophisticated!" she
exclaimed.

"The truth," John assured them, looking with dismay at his little china
cup, "comes very easily to us. We are brought up on it in Cumberland."

"Positively nourished on it," Louise agreed. "My dear Sophy, what he
says is quite true. Up there a man would tell you that he didn't like
the cut of your new blouse or the droop of your hat. It's a wonderful
atmosphere, and very austere. You ought to meet Mr. Strangewey's
brother, if you want to know the truth about yourself. Do go on looking
about you, Mr. Strangewey; and when you have finished, tell us just what
you are thinking."

"Well, just at that moment," he replied, "I was thinking that I ought
not to have come here in these clothes."

The girl by his side laughed reassuringly.

"As a matter of fact, you couldn't have done anything more successful,"
she declared. "The one thing up here that every one would like to do if
he dared is to be different from his fellows; but very few have the
necessary courage. Besides, at heart we are all so frightfully,
hatefully imitative. The last great success was the prince, when he wore
a black stock with a dinner-coat; but, alas, next evening there were
forty or fifty of them! If you come here to tea to-morrow afternoon, I
dare say you will find dozens of men wearing gray tweed clothes, colored
shirts, and brown boots. I am sure they are most becoming!"

"Don't chatter too much, child," Louise said benignly. "I want to hear
some more of Mr. Strangewey's impressions. This is--well, if not quite a
fashionable crowd, yet very nearly so. What do you think of it--the
women, for instance?"

"Well, to me," John confessed candidly, "they all look like dolls or
manikins. Their dresses and their hats overshadow their faces. They seem
all the time to be wanting to show, not themselves, but what they have
on."

They all laughed. Even the prince's lips were parted by the flicker of a
smile. Sophy leaned across the table with a sigh.

"Louise," she pleaded, "you will lend him to me sometimes, won't you?
You won't keep him altogether to yourself? There are such a lot of
places I want to take him to!"

"I was never greedy," Louise remarked, with an air of self-satisfaction.
"If you succeed in making a favorable impression upon him, I promise you
your share."

"Tell us some more of your impressions, Mr. Strangewey," Sophy begged.

"You want to lau