journeyed from continent to continent, and not merely up the
Sound to Newport, and he was as well known and welcome to the
consuls along the coasts of Africa and South America as he was at
Cowes or Nice. His books of voyages were recognized by
geographical societies and other serious bodies, who had given
him permission to put long disarrangements of the alphabet after
his name. She liked him because she had grown to be at home with
him, because it was good to know that there was some one who
would not misunderstand her, and who, should she so indulge
herself, would not take advantage of any appeal she might make to
his sympathy, who would always be sure to do the tactful thing
and the courteous thing, and who, while he might never do a great
thing, could not do an unkind one.

Miss Langham had entered the Porters' drawing-room after the
greater number of the guests had arrived, and she turned from her
hostess to listen to an old gentleman with a passion for golf, a
passion in which he had for a long time been endeavoring to
interest her. She answered him and his enthusiasm in kind, and
with as much apparent interest as she would have shown in a
matter of state. It was her principle to be all things to all
men, whether they were great artists, great diplomats, or great
bores. If a man had been pleading with her to leave the
conservatory and run away with him, and another had come up
innocently and announced that it was his dance, she would have
said: ``Oh, is it?'' with as much apparent delight as though his
coming had been the one bright hope in her life.

She was growing enthusiastic over the delights of golf and
unconsciously making a very beautiful picture of herself in her