differentiate even then between ugliness and plainness. When he sat
down at the close of his magnificent sermon, I no longer thought him
a complicated form of chimpanzee. I remembered the divine halo of
his smile. Of course his actual plainness of feature remained. It
was not the sort of face one could have wanted to live with, or to
have day after day opposite to one at table. But then one was not
called to that sort of discipline, which would have been martyrdom
to me. And he has always stood to my mind since as a proof of the
truth that goodness is never ugly; and that divine love and
aspiration shining through the plainest features may redeem them
temporarily into beauty; and, permanently, into a thing one loves to
remember."

"I see," said Jane. "It must have often helped you to a right view
to have realised that so long ago. But now let us return to the
important question of the face which you ARE to have daily opposite
you at table. It cannot be Lady Brand's, nor can it be Myra's; but,
you know, Dal, a very lovely one is being suggested for the
position."

"No names, please," said Garth, quickly. "I object to girls' names
being mentioned in this sort of conversation."

"Very well, dear boy. I understand and respect your objection. You
have made her famous already by your impressionist portrait of her,
and I hear you are to do a more elaborate picture 'in the fall.'
Now, Dal, you know you admire her immensely. She is lovely, she is
charming, she hails from the land whose women, when they possess
charm, unite with it a freshness and a piquancy which place them
beyond compare. In some ways you are so unique yourself that you