realized that this must be the great Mrs. Billy Alden, whose
engagement to the Duke of London was now the topic of the whole
country. And that huge diamond ornament must be part of Mrs. Alden's
million-dollar outfit of jewellery!

The great lady volunteered not to tell on him; and added generously
that when he came to dinner with her she would post him concerning
the company. "It's awkward for a stranger, I can understand," said
she; and continued, grimly: "When people get divorces it sometimes
means that they have quarrelled--and they don't always make it up
afterward, either. And sometimes other people quarrel--almost as
bitterly as if they had been married. Many a hostess has had her
reputation ruined by riot keeping track of such things."

So Montague made the discovery that the great Mrs. Billy, though.
forbidding of aspect, was good-natured when she chose to be, and
with a pretty wit. She was a woman with a mind of her own--a
hard-fighting character, who had marshalled those about her, and
taken her place at the head of the column. She had always counted
herself a personage enough to do exactly as she pleased; through the
course of the dinner she would take up the decanter of Scotch, and
make a pass to help Montague--and then, when he declined, pour out
imperturbably what she wanted. "I don't like your brother," she said
to him, a little later. "He won't last; but he tells me you're
different, so maybe I will like you. Come and see me sometime, and
let me tell you what not to do in New York."

Then Montague turned to talk with his hostess, who say on his right.

"Do you play bridge?" asked Mrs. Winnie, in her softest and most