some time, now, she had cherished this tiny grudge in her
heart--that he had never seemed to notice anything in particular about
her except when he tried to be agreeable concerning some new gown. The
contrast had become the sharper, too, since she had awakened to the
admiration of other men. And the awakening was only a half-convinced
happiness mingled with shy surprise that the wise world should really
deem her so lovely.

"A red-headed girl," she said teasingly; "I thought you had better taste
than--than--"

"Than to think you a raving beauty?"

"Oh," she said, "you don't think that!"

As a matter of fact he himself had become aware of it so suddenly that
he had no time to think very much about it. It was rather strange, too,
that he had not always been aware of it; or was it partly the mellow
light from the lamp tinting her till she glowed and shimmered like a
young sorceress, sitting so straight there in her turquoise silk and
misty lace?

Delicate luminous shadow banded her eyes; her hair, partly in shadow,
too, became a sombre mystery in rose-gold.

"Whatever _are_ you staring at?" she laughed. "Me? I don't believe it!
Never have you so honoured me with your fixed attention, Captain Selwyn.
You really glare at me as though I were interesting. And I know you
don't consider me that; do you?"

"How old are you, anyway?" he asked curiously.

"Thank you, I'll be delighted to inform you when I'm twenty."

"You look like a mixture of fifteen and twenty-five to-night," he said
deliberately; "and the answer is more and less than nineteen."

"And you," she said, "talk like a frivolous sage, and your wisdom is as
weighty as the years you carry. And what is the answer to that? Do you
know, Captain Selwyn, that when you talk to me this way you look about
as inexperienced as Gerald?"

"And do _you_ know," he said, "that I feel as inexperienced--when I talk
to you this way?"

She nodded. "It's probably good for us both; I age, you renew the
frivolous days of youth when you were young enough to notice the colour
of a girl's hair and eyes. Besides, I'm very grateful to you. Hereafter
you won't dare sit about and cross your knees and look like the picture
of an inattentive young man by Gibson. You've admitted that you like two
of my features, and I shall expect you to notice and _admit_ that you
notice the rest."

"I admit it now," he said, laughing.

"You mustn't; I won't let you. Two kinds of dessert are suffic