her hat, and all the distinction of her small head, her slender neck and
sloping shoulders, was more visible; her self-possession, too, the ease
and vivacity of her gestures. Her manner was that of one accustomed to a
large and varied world, who took all things without surprise, as they
came. Dr. Hooper had felt some emotion, and betrayed some, in this
meeting with his sister's motherless child; but the girl's only betrayal
of feeling had lain in the sharpness with which she had turned away from
her uncle's threatened effusion. "And how she looks at us!" thought
Alice. "She looks at us through and through. Yet she doesn't stare."

But at that moment Alice heard the word "prince," and her attention was
instantly arrested.

"We had some Russian neighbours," the newcomer was saying; "Prince and
Princess Jaroslav; and they had an English party at Christmas. It was
great fun. They used to take us out riding into the mountains, or into
Italy." She paused a moment, and then said carelessly--as though to keep
up the conversation--"There was a Mr. Falloden with them--an
undergraduate at Marmion College, I think. Do you know him, Aunt Ellen?"
She turned towards her aunt.

But Mrs. Hooper only looked blank. She was just thinking anxiously that
she had forgotten to take her tabloids after lunch, because Ewen had
hustled her off so much too soon to the station.

"I don't think we know him," she said vaguely, turning towards Alice.

"We know all about him. He was introduced to me once."

The tone of the eldest Miss Hooper could scarcely have been colder. The