maturity the vividness of youth. To do what she thought of doing would
be to run a great risk. When she had married Lord Sellingworth she had
provided herself with a foil to her beauty and to her comparative
youth. To marry a young man would be to make herself the foil. He would
emphasize her age by his lack of years. Could she dare it?

Again she hardened herself and resolved that she would dare it. The
wildness in her came uppermost, rose to recklessness. After me the
deluge! She might not be happy long if she married a young husband,
but she might be happy for a time. The mere marriage would surely be a
triumph for her. And if she had three years, two years, even one year of
happiness, she would sing a _Laus Deo_ and let the deluge close over her
head.

She began, in woman's quiet but penetrating way, to look about her. She
met many young men in the world, in fact nearly all the young eligible
men of the time. Many of them came to her house, for she often gave
parties to which she asked not only the "old guard" and the well-known
men of the day, but also the young married women. Now she began to give
small dances to which she asked pretty young girls. There was a ballroom
built out at the back of her house. It was often in use. The pretty
young girls began to say she was "a dear" to bother so much about them.
Dancing men voted her a thundering good hostess and a most good-natured
woman. In popularity she almost cut out the Duchess of Wellingborough,
who sometimes gave dances, too, for young people.

Really through it all she was on the watch, was seeking the possible
husband.

Presently she found the man with whom she could imagine being almost