society. When I say he made them for mine I must duly remember that mine
and that of Mrs. Pallant and Linda were now very much the same thing. He
was willing to sit and smoke for hours under the trees or, adapting his
long legs to the pace of his three companions, stroll through the nearer
woods of the charming little hill-range of the Taunus to those rustic
Wirthschaften where coffee might be drunk under a trellis. Mrs. Pallant
took a great interest in him; she made him, with his easy uncle, a
subject of discourse; she pronounced him a delightful specimen, as a
young gentleman of his period and country. She even asked me the sort of
"figure" his fortune might really amount to, and professed a rage of
envy when I told her what I supposed it to be. While we were so occupied
Archie, on his side, couldn't do less than converse with Linda, nor to
tell the truth did he betray the least inclination for any different
exercise. They strolled away together while their elders rested; two or
three times, in the evening, when the ballroom of the Kursaal was
lighted and dance-music played, they whirled over the smooth floor in a
waltz that stirred my memory. Whether it had the same effect on Mrs.
Pallant's I know not: she held her peace. We had on certain occasions
our moments, almost our half-hours, of unembarrassed silence while our
young companions disported themselves. But if at other times her
enquiries and comments were numerous on this article of my ingenuous
charge, that might very well have passed for a courteous recognition of
the frequent admiration I expressed for Linda--an admiration that drew
from her, I noticed, but scant direct response. I was struck thus with
her reserve when I spoke of her daughter--my remarks produced so little
of a maternal flutter. Her detachment, her air of having no fatuous
illusions and not being blinded by prejudice, seemed to me at times to
savour of affectation. Either she answered me with a vague and impatient
sigh and changed the subject, or else she said before doing so: "Oh yes,
yes, she's a very brilliant creature. She ought to be: God knows what