there. I declared a woman could have no sense of propriety at all who
married a man younger than herself--that no good could possibly come of
such marriages--and a lot more. Then I suddenly remembered, and you can
imagine my feelings! But what do you think I did? I went there the next
year, and said the same thing again exactly!"




CHAPTER VIII.


When we were a small party of intimate friends, and Ideala was quite at
her ease with us, it was pleasant to see her lolling, a little
languidly as was her wont (for physically her energy was fitful), in
the corner of a couch, looking happy and interested, her face, which
was sad in repose, lit up for the time with amusement, as she quietly
listened to our talk, and observed all that was going on around her.
Even when she did not speak a word she somehow managed to make her
presence felt, and, as a rule, she spoke little on these occasions. But
sometimes we managed to draw her out, and sometimes she would burst
forth suddenly of her own accord, with a torrent of eloquence that
silenced us all; and even when she was utterly wrong she charmed us.
Her chance observations were generally noteworthy either for their
sense or their humour. It was only her sense of humour, I think, that
saved her from being sentimental; but she gave expression to it in
season and out of season, and would let it carry her too far sometimes,
for she made enemies for herself more than once by the way she exposed
the absurdity of certain things to the very people who believed in
them. Every lapse of this kind caused her infinite regret, but the