Confidence

o was in turn attended by Captain Lovelock. This little party found privacy in the crowd; they seated themselves in a quiet corner in an angle of one of the barriers of the terrace

w long she would continue to keep it. For himself, he was in no hurry to let the daylight in; the little incident at Siena had been, in itself, a charming affair; but Miss Vivian's present attitude gave it a sort of mystic consecration. He thought she carried it off very well-the theory that she had not seen him before; last evening she had been slightly confused, but now she was as self-possessed as if the line she had taken were a matter of conscience. Why should it be a matter of conscience? Was she in love with Gordon Wright, and did she wish, in consequen

yet her expression was light and quick, a combination-or a contradiction-which gave an original stamp to her beauty. Bernard remembered that he had thought it a trifle "bold"; but he now perceived that this had been but a vulgar misreading of her dark, direct, observant eye. The eye was a charming one; Be

"we were in the far south; we

owhere

e usually prefer the quiet plac

aste, then," said Bernard,

d at him

hat Baden i

rowd, at the lighted windows of the Conversation-hou

idea of absolu

iss Vivian. "I am not fond

nge it, then, wi

a moment, with her cleve

making her com

g will," said Ber

k mother. But I make sac

ou call sa

ng the winter

her she must have had a very happy life-"

hat one gives up,"

id you

with her mocki

y civil question,

seem to doubt y

ounce. I gave up-I gave up-" and she looked abou

. When a woman speaks of giving up society, what she means is giving up admiration. You can neve

ever found it. It was very respe

deepest kind,

wer varieties," the

hough shallow admiration expresses itself, all th

n hesitate

," she said, looking strai

sitated ab

it is shallow. That co

girl frown

you see how right I am in my taste for such places as t

coming, as well, has s

g!" said M

se make ingenious remarks?

ings, but I should not exactl

; it 's what he does. That

nt. "That 's not usually a charm; g

hought the reverse!

on of most people-among the th

on what you ca

Miss Vivian. "It al

ll, fortunately, such a subtle idea! The world certainl

her eyes a moment, a

charm?" s

o charm without it

for me there is,"

altogether too clever to be likely to indulge in a silly affectation of cyni

s of vice!" he said, laughing. "What do y

out vice; but I have known vir

r. It was poor virtue. The be

im a little, with her f

ing to have to thin

to aid a defective recollection of a story about a Spanish family they had met at Biarritz, with which she had undertaken to entertain Gordon Wrig