The Lady Paramount

as he and Adrian stro

no

t you 've met her, speak out, and tell me on y

ght," was Anthony

x within the confines of the Solar System. She is to other women what-well, I 'll name no names-what somebody I coul

an see with the

can do-she can see round a corner with them. And then su

as n't earless,"

white lilies. Earless, says he. I 'll bet three-half

ty enough," as

ession. "Witty is n't the word for it. And then, with all her years, she 's so yo

ng," Anthony agreed. "By the bye,

in Kensington Square. Historic, romantic, poetic Kensington Square, where burning Sappho loved and sang, and Thackeray wrote the What-do-you-call-'ems. Who fears to speak of Ninety-eight? That's her number. Ninety-eight, Kensingto

" said

asked Adrian, opening his blue eyes wide, an

Miss Sandus,"

dstill, and raised hi

. He sees that I patter of Miss Sandus. What perspicuity. And he just a mortal man, like anybody-nay, by all accounts, just a bluff country squire. Ah, wha

ere Madame Torrebianca co

the age of folly, or little girls, who have n't reached it. But women in the prime of their womanhood are always thinking of fashion-plates and curling-irons and love and shopping. Name me, if you can, four vainer, tiresomer, or more unfruitful topics. Have you never waked in your bed at midnight to wonder how it has come to pass that I, at my time of l

w where she comes fro

"Oh-Madame Torrebianca?" he conjectured. "Still harping on my daughter? Of course I know where she comes from. She comes from the land where the love of the tu

ow what part of Ital

usanna Torrebianca, of the Palazzo Sebastiani, via Quattro Fontane, Rome, party of the second part.' A beau vers, is n't it? The lilt, the swelling cadence, the rich rhyme, the hidden alliterations,-and then the sensitive, h

rposed. "But the part of Italy where she really lives is a little castaway island in the Adr

l again, and dropped his j

really?" he g

lly," sai

Adrian e

is n't it?"

"It's-it-it beggars

ours, it is doing pret

ese golden days and weeks in friendly hob-nobbings with her, and not learned that she came from

never told me?" Anthony

hen you have me for a listener, you talk such an uninterrupted strea

t you 've been equally

th

"This bosom is a sealed sanctuary for the confidences of those who confide in me. Besides, when I 'm wit

hing, I should like, for the present, to leave

ntleman. You need n't fear my undeceiving her. I know my place; I know who holds the purse-strings; I know whic

at Mass. I wonder whether I am in l