Stella laughed a little, softly, as though at the vagaries of a child.
"Poor Tommy!" she said. "What it is to be so young!"

"I'd sooner be a babe in arms than a cynic," said Tommy bluntly.





CHAPTER III

THE TRIUMPH


Lady Harriet's lorgnettes were brought piercingly to bear upon the
bride-elect that night, and her thin, refined features never relaxed
during the operation. She was looking upon such youth and loveliness as
seldom came her way; but the sight gave her no pleasure. She deemed it
extremely unsuitable that Stella should dance at all on the eve of her
wedding, and when she realized that nearly every man in the room was
having his turn, her disapproval by no means diminished. She wondered
audibly to one after another of her followers what Captain Dacre was
about to permit such a thing. And when Monck--Everard Monck of all
people who usually avoided all gatherings at the Club and had never been
known to dance if he could find any legitimate means of excusing
himself--waltzed Stella through the throng, her indignation amounted
almost to anger. The mess had yielded to the last man.

"I call it almost brazen," she said to Mrs. Burton, the Major's wife.
"She flaunts her unconventionality in our faces."