because the next number of it that he would see would be in
the city in which it was printed. The paper in his hands was
the St. James Budget, and it contained much fashionable
intelligence concerning the preparations for a royal wedding
which was soon to take place between members of two of the
reigning families of Europe. There was on one page a
half-tone reproduction of a photograph, which showed a group
of young people belonging to several of these reigning
families, with their names and titles printed above and below
the picture. They were princesses, archdukes, or grand-dukes,
and they were dressed like young English men and women, and
with no sign about them of their possible military or social rank.

One of the young princesses in the photograph was looking out
of it and smiling in a tolerant, amused way, as though she had
thought of something which she could not wait to enjoy until
after the picture was taken. She was not posing consciously,
as were some of the others, but was sitting in a natural
attitude, with one arm over the back of her chair, and with
her hands clasped before her. Her face was full of a fine
intelligence and humor, and though one of the other princesses
in the group was far more beautiful, this particular one had a
much more high-bred air, and there was something of a
challenge in her smile that made any one who looked at the
picture smile also. Carlton studied the face for some time,
and mentally approved of its beauty; the others seemed in
comparison wooden and unindividual, but this one looked like a
person he might have known, and whom he would certainly have
liked. He turned the page and surveyed the features of the
Oxford crew with lesser interest, and then turned the page