An Engagement of Convenience

iration in this decorative scheme, seemed to fuse into it, to lend herself to design and draughtmanship. Her face, too, took on subtler phase

the lines of ordinary portraiture-a simple soul, a gentle Lady Bountiful, y

er in a peaceful, old-fashioned way that Wyndham even found himself admiring. Sometimes Mrs. Robinson would appear only towards the end of the sitting, and sometimes she considerately announced that Alic

, that her soul was as na?ve and trusting as her outward being. She was refreshingly a child of nature-no bewildering complexity here-no shadow of affectation. She spoke without reserve of the poverty of her childhood, and admitted that she had disagreeable qualms of conscience about their present riches. Was it right to enjoy so much when one thought of the state of the world generally? They debated

ying a comedy of sentiment? he asked himself. Well, why not? Men and women made a careful

ent he shrugged his shoulders. Why trouble his mind at all? Every relation between a man and a woman who came into such close personal touch was in a way sentimental-for the time being! That was only the game of life, an

ints so lightly and simply within the range of her comprehension. Sometimes, in following up an explanation, he would be carried away by the flow of his own ideas and his personal interest in the matter, and then he would almost seem to be addressing an equal in knowledge and experience. But whenever tha

She was stateliness itself. She was sunshine and sweetness. What was Miss Robinson by the side of her? And as he asked himself the question, an impression of Miss Robinson, as he had recently come upon her suddenly in the streets, blotted out the more dignified version on his own canvas. How plain and homely she had seemed i

ated all her virtues, recognised her exceptional womanhood: by the

that in proportion as I get more friendly with her and really like her, I yet get harder and harder on her, poor ch

y; and it came upon him always with a degree of surprise that, however he might feel abo