Lady Connie

t her father always allowed her to ride alone--with a groom--in London and the Campagna; she will of course pay all the expenses of it out of he

han anything Connie was likely to see on the Riviera--much more respectable anyway. Well, of course, everybody will call her f

nty, she'll be twenty-one directly. She may not be more than a twelvemonth with us. She need

a nice ladylike girl Alice is. But Nora often gives me a deal of trouble--and if she takes to imitating Connie, and wanti

d stood over her hu

l--w

,' she said, 'her ladyship smoked two cigarettes last night, and Mrs. Tinkler'--that's the maid--'says she always smokes two before she goes to bed.' Then I spoke to Tinkler--whose manner to me, I consider, is not at all

you needn't mind,"

rather--in that dreadful foreign life," said Mrs.

y. "I only know that when they came here ten years ago, I thought her one

them. Professors, tutors young and old, undergraduates and heads of houses, had crowded round the mother and the long-legged, distinguished-looking child, who clung so closely to her side; and if only she could have given Oxford a few more days, the whole place would have been at Ella Risborough's feet. "So intelligent too!" said the enthusiastic--"so learned even!" A member of the Roman "Accademia dei Lincei," with only one other woman to keep her company in that august band; and yet so modest, so unpretending, so full of laughter, and life, and sex! Mrs. Hooper, who generally found herself at these official luncheons in a place which her small egotism resented, had watched her sister-in-law from a distance, envying her dress, her title, her wealth, bitterly angry that Ewen's sister shoul

ds with Ewen Hooper, to whom in the course of half an hour it was evident that he took a warm liking. He put up his eye-glass to look at the Hooper children; he said vaguely, "I hope that some d

rough's answer--"I don't care twopence about the Duchess, Hugh! and I haven't seen Ewen for si

an income which, when all supplemental earnings--exams, journalism, lectures--were counted, rarely reached seven hundred. But they would be "led into expenses"--the maid was evidently a most exacting woman; and meanwhile, Alice, who was just out, and was really quite a pretty girl, would be entirely put in the background by this young woman with her forward manner, and her title, and the way she had as though the world belonged to her. Mrs.

sfied with her room and wants to buy some furniture. Well, let her, I say. She has plenty of

ys us,

raightened her

s not as though you were a young don, a nobody. You've made your position. Everyb

Dr. Hooper's weak

Connie will find Oxford society ver

Anyway, she will have all the advantages we have. We take h

e way, can't you let me off, Ellen?

st finished mending your gown, on purpose. How you tear it as you do, I c

ou aske

g--and to meet Lord Glaramar

oper l

expect, a very indep

hurried and perfunctory knock, opened the st

want to spe

d. But I can't spare m

--the primal shrinking from work, the primal instinct to sit and dream--that had every day to be met and conquered afresh, before the student actually found himself in his chair, or lecturing from his desk with all his brains alert. Anyway, the Reader, when there was no college or university engagement to pin him down, would stand often--"spilling the morning i

come in to gossip. Sh

ot to let Connie fur

thing? What do you mean?" And Dr. Hooper took

came in to you; and I'm certain they've gone to B's"--the excited girl

said the Reader, smiling. "Conni

with her hands behind her. "She'll make us all do what she wants.

ng hand, and patted his youn

just ask her to step in here a moment. And now wi

em both forcibly out, and sat down to make his final preparatio

, the yellow gold, the laburnum, the tossing white of the chestnuts. The figures, even, passing in the streets, seemed to glitter with the trees and the buildings. The white in the women's dresses; the short black gowns and square caps of the undergraduates; the gay colours in the children's frocks; the overhanging masses of hawthorn and lilac that here and there thrust themselves, effervescent and rebellious, through and over college walls:--everything shimmered and shone i

resently, making a contemptuous lip. "

ng men in the

ates, Annette--the boys w

nnette, shrugging her shoulders. "Many a time I wanted to b

ago when I took you to that riding competition--what did they call it?--that gymkhana--in the Villa Borghese--and w

re, the crowd of jostling horses, with their riders, bearing the historic names of Rome--Colonnas, Orsinis, Gaetanis, Odescalchis, and the rest. A young and splendid brood, all arrogant life and gaiety, as high-mettled as their English and Irish horses. And in front a tall, long-limbed cavalry officer in t

emed to her all undersized, plain and sallow. They carried books, and two wore glasses. "Those are what he used to call 'smugs'!" she thought contemptuously, her imagination still full of the laughing Italian you

r, a carpet, and a smaller wardrobe for Annette, and seeing a few trifles, like a French screen, a small sofa, and an inlaid writing-table in her path, she threw them in. Then it

s famous long before the University began, seemed to be living its own vigorous life, untrammelled by the men

lleges, sitting in Broad Walk, and loitering over sho

Constance--"and

leges from the lecture rooms of Balliol and St. John's. Now, it seemed to Constance that the men they passed we

ming!" she said to An

showed a fine head covered with thick brown curls. The face was long, yet not narrow; the cheek-bones rather high, the chin conspicuous. The eyes--very dark and heavily lidded--were set forward under strongly marked eyebrows; and both they, the straight nose with its close nostrils, and the red mouth, seemed to be drawn in firm yet subtle strokes on the sunburnt skin, as certa

ing, measuring itself against the momentary confusion in hers. "I have been hoping to

rrived yesterday." The girl's manner had becom

pe you'll let Mrs. Hooper bring you to tea to meet them? Oh, by the way, do you know Meyrick? I think you must have met him." He tu

unt's engagements are,"

way belonging to an old Oxford inn. Annette was look

? You have no faith in my manners, I know!" laughed the young man. "How you did sit upon me at Cann

" said Constance drily, turning t

n him for anything. But I hope you'll let me do an

ion with which the young fellow was

w all about Mr. Falloden! At Cannes,

d been a persecuted victim at Cannes; th

eless nod and good-bye, beckoned to Annette and w

s very night--shan't we?--at

n't k

's at St. Hubert's. Some old swell is coming down. The gardens are terribly roman

her a da

with a slight decided gesture, w

her maid were lost to sigh

posite direction. But he said nothing. Meyrick, his junior by two years, who wa

she was certainly not ve

n flush

l bet you anything you please s

the way; but her face was crossed by a multitude of expressions, which meant a very active

It would be better to go and beard her uncle at once. But just as she approached the house, she became aware of a slenderly built ma

a start of pleasure, and

ng from? Oh, I know--you are with th

he river. His face was one of singular charm, the features regular, the skin a pale olive, the hair and eyes intensely black. Whereas Falloden's features seemed to lie, so to speak, on the surface, the mouth and eyes scarcely disturbing the general level of the face mask--no indentation in the chin, and no perceptible hollow tinder the brow,--this m

He was asking her about various friends in whose company they had last met--apparently at Rome; and he

at the Hoo

soon? I should like to show you my rooms. I have some of those nice things we bought at Syracuse--y

ut chaperons seem

our married fellows are great friends of mine. I should l

u write

a little

well. He and I work together in

rs. Hooper's idiosyncrasies were very generally known. He himself had always given both Mrs. Hooper and her eldest daughter a wide berth in the social gat

say good-bye, he suddenly remem

e going, of course? Oh, yes--make them take you! I

he was gone, and the Hoopers' front door swun

, stepped into the hall, and there p

ut, of course, it doesn't matter. The servants are at their

roach to the house, in Mr. Sorell's company, through the little s

llen. He used to come to our apartment. Is Unc

tanding with her back to t

ings we want, for my room and Annette's. When I go, of course the

ome embarrassment, his

e! But I wish you had consulted me. Of course,

ance. "It's my fault, you see. I've got far too many dresse

ought to be of course--even our guests. It's a place of training." He dropped a Greek word absently, putting away his papers the while, and thinki

cellor's party to-night. I think it would interest you. After all, Oxford's not

f Marmion," said Const

ountenance bro

t that's the salt of life. Yes, I remember, your mother used to mention Sorell in her letters. Well, with those two and ourselves, y

her, touching her magically, insensibly, as it had touched the countless generations before her. She was the child of two scholars, and she had been brought up in a society both learned and cosmopolitan, traversed by all the main currents and personalities of European politics, but passionate all the same for the latest find in the Forum, the newest guesses in criticism, for any fresh light that the present could shed upon the past. And when she looked back upo

entfully. And yet what cause of offence had she? At Cannes, had she thought much about him? In that scene, so troubled a

ling about Uncle Ewen's name, as if it was not worth his remembering! I shall c

would be delighted to go to the Vice-Chancel

nted these additions, only there had been no money to buy them with. Now Mrs. Hooper felt secretly certain that Constance, when she left

ngs. Nora hovered about the hall, severely dumb, while they

iting-table contemplating her transformed room wit

od looking down upon her. She wa

pointed in you--dreadfully disappoi

n!" Constance ro

nsisted. You pay us a large sum, and you had a right. Instead, you have humili

going to behave like this. You know very well I didn't do it unkindly. It is you who are unkin

e to keep all the accounts here, and make mother and Alice pay their debts. Father, of course, is always too busy to think of such things. Your mon

tared in be

stress in this

away, and her breath was coming quick.

?" asked Conn

odded

forlornness overcame her. Nora, standing by the table, and already pierced with remorse, saw her cousin's large eyes fill with tears. Connie sat down with her face avert

beast! I always am. Oh, p

e, with difficulty--"how

mfort her. And presently, after an agitated half-hour, each girl seemed to herself to have found a friend. Reserve had

dress of white satin, draped with black, which Annette had laid

she said, still eager to mak

urse, that you a

w that," said Constance,

n Rome. I wonder--don't be offended!"--said

eply was passi

oked th

t. Girls get so dreadfully mixed up. But I am

aid Connie, with the

ened he

eaps of girls with whom no

alked, the grey Oxford walls, the Oxford lilacs and laburnums, vanished from perception. She was in another scene. Hot sun--gleaming orange-gardens and blue sea--bare-footed, black-eyed children--and a man

nd tense, her hands behind her head; "now, I am read