the moonlight came faintly on our faces through the glass and the vines.

Again the Greek head with the light upon it!

Strains of other music floated in. Every sense was enraptured.

"Let Alexandra go!" I thought. "Let me live as my people have discovered
how to live."

"Mon cher, am I tending you faithfully."

"Charmingly, my sister."

She laughed at the way I said it, because I spoke with perfect
resignation.

The thread running through all my other experiences of the evening had
been admiration of Grace. Pleased as I was with this society, I had
compared her with each of the best members of it, to her advantage. She
had in her young way, the dignity of Madame de Rheims; all the
gracefulness of the Southern girl with the pretty eyes; beauty as
striking, though not the same as that girl's sister; the gaiety of
Chinic; and now I was to find that she was apparently as cultured as
Mde. Fauteux. For she did talk seriously and brightly about books and
languages and artistic subjects:

"I would abhor beyond everything a life of fashionable vanity. My desire
for life is to always keep progressing."

Whilst she talked I was reflecting, and mechanically looking around at