want tête-à-tête teas with them if they are."

"You absurd child! Is there any reason why I shouldn't have tea with
Mr. Hermon, if it amuses me?"

"None specially; but if it's just a splendid young animal to look at,
you want, I daresay it would be safer to import a polar bear from the
Zoo."

Lorraine felt a spot of colour burn in het cheeks, but she only laughed
the subject aside, and alluded to it no more before they parted at the
theatre door.

Only at a late supper-party that night she was quieter than was her
wont; and, contrary to her habit, one of the first to leave. A
well-known rising politician, who had been paying her much attention of
late, prepared, as usual, to escort her home. She wished he would have
stayed behind, but had no sufficient reason for refusing his company.
He taxed her with silence as they spun westwards, and she pleaded a
headache, wondering a little why all he said, and looked, and did,
somehow seemed banal and irritating to-night.

He was so sure of himself, so fashionably blasé, so carelessly clever, so
daringly frank, with all the finished air of the modern smart man,
basking callously in the assured fact of his own brilliance and
superiority. She knew that most women would envy her the attentions of
such a one, and that his interest was undoubtedly a great compliment,
as such compliments go; but to-night she found herself remembering all
the other women who had reigned before her, all those who would
presently succeed her, and she was conscious of an impatient disgust of