ask for your judgment upon it before I give mine?"

"Mine? why, I expected every minute that Mr. Thorn would make
the musicians play 'Sparkling and Bright,' and tell Miss
Ringgan that to save trouble he had directed them to express
what he was sure were the sentiments of the whole company in
one burst."

He smiled a little, but in a way that Constance could not
understand, and did not like.

"Those are common epithets," he said.

"Must I use uncommon?" said Constance, significantly.

"No; but these may say one thing or another."

"I have said one thing," said Constance; "and now you may say
the other."

"Pardon me — you have said nothing. These epithets are
deserved by a great many faces, but on very different grounds;
and the praise is a different thing, accordingly."

"Well, what is the difference?" said Constance.

"On what do you think this lady's title to it rests?"

"On what? — why, on that bewitching little air of the eyes and
mouth, I suppose."