that I didn't take an earlier breakfast, in order to begin my day
here sooner. One has to snatch a moment when he can, nowadays; for
these rooms are so infested with British swells that a base-born
American stands very little chance!"

Now I should like to know if Willie Beresford is in love with
Francesca. What shall I do--that is what shall we do--if he is,
when she is in love with somebody else? To be sure, she may want
one lover for foreign and another for domestic service. He is too
old for her, but that is always the way. When Alcides, having gone
through all the fatigues of life, took a bride in Olympus, he ought
to have selected Minerva, but he chose Hebe.

I wonder why so many people call him 'Willie' Beresford, at his age.
Perhaps it is because his mother sets the example; but from her lips
it does not seem amiss. I suppose when she looks at him she recalls
the past, and is ever seeing the little child in the strong man,
mother fashion. It is very beautiful, that feeling; and when a girl
surprises it in any mother's eyes it makes her heart beat faster, as
in the presence of something sacred, which she can understand only
because she is a woman, and experience is foreshadowed in intuition.

The Honourable Arthur had sent us a dozen London dailies and
weeklies, and we fell into an idle discussion of their contents over
the teacups. I had found an 'exchange column' which was as
interesting as it was novel, and I told Francesca it seemed to me
that if we managed wisely we could rid ourselves of all our useless
belongings, and gradually amass a collection of the English articles
we most desired. "Here is an opportunity, for instance," I said,
and I read aloud-