ese thoughts obtrude themselves, but they
nevertheless hovered at the back of his mind. It was more graceful to
reflect that Millicent possessed refinement, a degree of beauty, and many
most desirable qualities.

CHAPTER XX

MRS. GLADWYNE'S TEMPTATION

Clarence had gone away with Batley when Lisle called on Mrs. Gladwyne.
She was leaving home for a visit on the following day and he wished to
say good-by, and, if an opportunity offered, to ask her opinion upon a
matter he had at heart. She was not a clever woman, but there were points
on which he thought her judgment could be trusted. He was told that she
would be occupied for a few minutes and was shown into her drawing-room.
He sat down to wait and, though he was familiar with the house, he looked
about him with an interest for which there was a reason. The room had
always impressed him by its size and loftiness, and it did so more than
ever that afternoon.

The floor was of hardwood, polished to a glossy luster by the hands of
several generations, and the rugs scattered here and there emphasized its
extent. Most of the furniture was old, and the few articles apparently
bought in later times harmonized with it. The faded ceiling had been
painted with Cupid's trailing ribands, he judged by some artist of the
period shortly preceding the French Revolution, and two or three Arcadian
figures hinted at the same date. There were other things--a luster
chandelier, quaintly-wrought hearth-irons, a carved wood mantel--that
posited to bygone days.

It all impressed him with a sense of the continuity of English traditions
and mode of life, as applied to such families as the Gladwynes. Cradled
in a degree of luxury which nevertheless differed from modern profusion
and ostentation, steeped in a slightly austere refinement, he could
understand their shrinking from sudden chance and clinging to the customs
of the past. They were all, so far as he had seen, characterized by the
possession of high qualities, with the exception of Clarence, whom he
regarded as a reversion to a baser type; but he thought that they would
suffer if uprooted and transplanted in a less sheltered and less
cultivated soil. Inherited instincts were difficult to subdue; he was
conscious of their influence. He came from a new land where he had often
toiled for a dollar or two daily, but a love and veneration for the
ancient English homes in which his people had lived was growing strong in
him.

Mr