ck of
every-day magnetism, fascinated her; not the woman, but the acute,
receptive, and antagonistic intelligence. As he sat there talking, with
hardly a change of expression in his voice or on his cold face, faintly
sneering, he seemed to be holding his powers in solution; to have
resolved them for the time being into their elements, that they might
rest and recuperate. While no doubt in first-rate physical condition, he
looked as if he had not a red corpuscle in his body, and this very
contrast to the warm full-blooded people surrounding him gave him a
distinction of his own, the distinction of pure brain independent of
those auxiliaries that few public men have been able to dispense with.
It was obvious that he was too self-centred, too haughtily indifferent,
or too spoilt, to make any effort in private life to charm or bewilder;
when he vanquished from the platform it was by the awakened rush of the
forces within him; and this very indifference, this contemptuous
knowledge of his mighty reserves, this serene faith in his star,
invested his personal unattractiveness with a formidable significance.
Isabel's imagination dilated him into a disembodied intellect surrounded
by mere statues of human flesh. As she left the dining-room the illusion
vanished. She liked him less than ever, nevertheless wished that he were
her brother and the rising star in American politics.

V

As the women entered a large room on the opposite side of the central
hall, where coffee was to be served, Flora Thangue laid her hand
deprecatingly on Isabel's arm. "I was so sorry not to be able to wait
for you," she said. "But I had a distracted note from Vicky at eight
asking me to dress as quickly as I could and see if the cards on the
table were all right: the new butler is rather a muff, and such a
martinet the footmen dare not interfere. I was delighted to see that
Jack had taken charge of you. What do you think of our infant prodigy?"

"I have had little chance to think anything," said Isabel, evasively.
"Is he the typical Englishman--I mean apart from his peculiar gifts?"

"Only in certain qualities. You see he has Celtic blood in him: of
course the Gwynnes had their origin in Wales; and then he is one-fourth
American, isn't he? I can't say how far that inheritance has influenced
his character, but there is no doubt about the Celtic. Outwardly he is
even more impassive than the usual Oxford product, and if he had been
born a gener