arrival of others, he started to find his hostess, now lost to sight in
the breezy circle of silk and lace setting in from the stairs.

He heard names announced which meant nothing to him, which stirred no
memory; names which sounded vaguely familiar; names which caused him to
turn quickly--but seldom were the faces as familiar as the names.

He said to a girl, behind whose chair he was standing: "All the younger
brothers and sisters are coming here to confound me; I hear a Miss Innis
announced, but it turns out to be her younger sister--"

"By the way, do you know my name?" she asked.

"No," he said frankly, "do you know mine?"

"Of course, I do; I listened breathlessly when somebody presented you
wholesale at your sister's the other day. I'm Rosamund Fane. You might
as well be instructed because you're to take me in at the Orchils' next
Thursday night, I believe."

"Rosamund Fane," he repeated coolly. "I wonder how we've avoided each
other so consistently this winter? I never before had a good view of
you, though I heard you talking to young Innis at dinner. And yet," he
added, smiling, "if I had been instructed to look around and select
somebody named Rosamund, I certainly should have decided on you."

"A compliment?" she asked, raising her delicate eyebrows.

"Ask yourself," he said.

"I do; and I get snubbed."

And, smiling still, he said: "Do you know the most mischievous air that
Schubert ever worried us with?"

"'Rosamund,'" she said; "and--thank you, Captain Selwyn." She had
coloured to the hair.

"'Rosamund,'" he nodded carelessly--"the most mischievous of melodies--"
He stopped short, then coolly resumed: "That mischievous quality is
largely a matter of accident, I fancy. Schubert never meant that
'Rosamund' should interfere with anybody's business."

"And--when did you first encounter the malice in 'Rosamund,' Captain
Selwyn?" she asked with perfect self-possession.

He did not answer immediately; his smile had died out. Then: "The first
time I really understood 'Rosamund' was when I heard Rosamund during a
very delightful dinner."

She said: "If a woman keeps at a man long enough she'll extract
compliments or yawns." And looking up at a chinless young man who had
halted near her: "George, Captain Selwyn has acquired such a charmingly
Oriental fluency during his residence in the East that I thought--if you
ever desired to travel again--" She shrugged, and, glancing at Selwyn:
"Have you met