way of living.'

'She is as true to nature as fashion is false,' said the painter, in his
warmth becoming scarcely complimentary, as sometimes happens with young
persons. 'I don't think that she has written a word more than what every
woman would deny feeling in a society where no woman says what she means
or does what she says. And can any praise be greater than that?'

'Ha-ha! Capital!'

'All her verses seem to me,' said a rather stupid person, 'to be simply--

"Tral'-la-la-lal'-la-la-la',
Tral'-la-la-lal'-la-la-lu',
Tral'-la-la-lal'-la-la-lalla',
Tral'-la-la-lu'."

When you take away the music there is nothing left. Yet she is plainly a
woman of great culture.'

'Have you seen what the London Light says about them--one of the finest
things I have ever read in the way of admiration?' continued Ladywell,
paying no attention to the previous speaker. He lingered for a reply,
and then impulsively quoted several lines from the periodical he had
named, without aid or hesitation. 'Good, is it not?' added Ladywell.

They assented, but in such an unqualified manner that half as much
readiness would have meant more. But Ladywell, though not experienced
enough to be quite free from enthusiasm, was too experienced to mind
indifference for more than a minute or two. When the ladies had