said, timidly. "Do you notice, Aunt Caroline, he does not look
about him at all, he has never glanced in any direction; it is as
if he were alone in the room."

"A very proper behavior," the Aunt Caroline replied severely, "but
he cannot be an Englishman--no Englishman would enter a public
place, having made himself remarkable like that, and then be able
to sit there unaware of it; I am glad to say our young men have
some sense of convention. You cannot imagine Eustace Medlicott
perfectly indifferent to the remarks he would provoke if he were
tricked out so."

Stella felt a sudden sympathy for the foreigner. She had heard so
ceaselessly of her fiance's perfections!

"Perhaps they wear the hair like that in his country," she
returned, with as much spirit as she dared to show. "And he may
think we all look funny, as we think he does. Only he seems to be
much better mannered than we are, because he is quite sure of
himself and quite unconscious or indifferent about our opinion."

Both her aunt and uncle looked at her with slightly shocked
surprise--and she saw it at once and reddened a little.

But this incident caused the remarkable looking foreigner to
crystallize in interest for her, especially when, in raising his
glass of champagne, she saw that on his wrist there was a bracelet
of platinum with a small watch set with very fine diamonds. She
could hardly have been more surprised if he had worn a ring in his
nose, so unaccustomed was she to any type but that of the curates