Baroque all over."

"See here," said Mrs. Bates, suddenly; "are you the woman who read about
the Decadence of the Renaissance Forms at the last Fortnightly?"

"I'm the woman," responded Jane, modestly.

"I don't know why I didn't recognize you before. But you sat in an
awfully bad light, for one thing. Besides, I had so much on my mind that
day. Our dear little Reginald was coming down with something--or so we
thought. And the bonnet I was forced to wear--well, it just made me blue.
You didn't notice it?"

"I was too flustered to notice anything. It was my first time there."

"Well, it was a good paper, although I couldn't half pay attention to it;
it gave me several new notions. All my decorations, then--you think them
corrupt and degraded?"

"Well," returned Jane, at once soothing and judicial, "all these later
forms are interesting from an historical and sociological point of view.
And lots of people find them beautiful, too, for that matter." Jane slid
over these big words with a practised ease.

"They impressed my notables, anyway," retorted Mrs. Bates. "We
entertained a great deal during the Fair--it was expected, of course,
from people of our position. We had princes and counts and honorables
without end. I remember how delighted I was with my first prince--a
Russian. H'm! later in the season Russian princes were as plentiful as
blackberries: you stepped on one at every turn. We had some of the