The Path of a Star

ne. "It is the lowest, isn't it-in th

elicate chin up to Duff Lindsay with the protest. Lindsay's cup was at his lips, and hi

e's a mere thief of expression. You can always see him behind his sto

e apes and the monkeys," rema

ors!" cried

nergy and, so to speak, disappeared. It was one of her little ways, and

h Kensington flat full of them, and their cigarettes-and they were alway

re than ordinarily refined. That was the cursory verdict, the superficial thing to see and say; it will do to go on with. From the way Lindsay looked at her as she spoke, h

cative. His proposition was obscured to him for the instant by his desire to obtain the very last o

dy?" asked M

dividual. I prefer to rest

nd turned her head again to listen to Mrs. Barberry. The turns of Alicia's head had a way o

and five subalterns from the Fort, and I said, 'Never again!' Fortunately the girls were just out, and not o

on her finger, and a little smile, which was inc

our in London. What could possibly be done with it by an Austra

e through last cold weather. One supported even the gaieties of Christmas week with fortitude, consci

ommented Dr. Livingstone, vaguely aware

e?" Mrs. Barberry said. "Such a magnifi

ecurity," Lindsay replied, looking at Alicia; a

e stor

tions? I suppose there a

a reminiscence of amateur theatricals. "Their relations!" she

ried, but unimportantly, made a heavy bet, when he met this girl, that he would subd

cried Mrs. Barberry, entering a protest

ly the rever

as something like

about the bet?" cr

. I fancy she knew about the m

marked Dr. Livingstone. "If you really want to come

t it two days ago, and put it in jelly for me-wasn't it dear of him! Good-bye, you nice thing"-Mrs. Barberry addressed Alicia-"Good-

d pale clear tints-there was an effect of early morning about her that made the full tide of other women's sunlight vulgar-anyone would have been fastidious in the choice of a figure to present her in. With a suspicion of haughtiness she was drawn for the traditional marchioness; but she lifted her eyes and you saw that she appealed instead. There was an art in the doing of her hair, a dainty elaboration that spoke of the most approved conventions beneath, yet it was impossible to mistake the freedom of spirit that lay in the lines of her blouse. Even her gracefulness ran now and then into a downrightness of movement which suggested the assertion of a primitive sincerity in a personal world of many effects. Into her making of tea, for example, she put nothing more sophisticated than sugar, and she ordered more bread and butter in the worst possible rendering of her servants' tongue, without a thought except that th

you would f

being so sure," she said, "that you could present her entertainingly!" She looked past him toward the

presents herself. One is only the humbles

ght from the window. It silhouetted a rare f

u talk about her.

sted metaphor in

bit satisfied. A few simple facts sometimes-sometimes are be

y card for permission to tell her so. I explained to her that one would have hesitated at home, but here one was protected by the custom. And she received

t wa

Febr

ful. People of that kind-how snobbish I sound, but you know what I mean-are rather stranded in Calcutta, aren't they? They haven't

may vaunt myself so much. A mere theory of life will go a long way, you know, toward establishin

Alicia demanded quickly. "I

d to contract a little, as at the

o, I am sure she has not." His reflection was: "I

e has let you do that! You

venturing upon impalpabilities, but

doesn't follow that one can. I don't seem ab

the lightest cloud of submission, a

w. It surrounds her like a kind of atmosphere, an intellectual atmosphere. Thou

skins like a long-stemmed flower cast down among them, and looked away from the subje

ove with her. A fellow in a novel, now, in my situation, would be embroiled with half

ntentness. She lifted her head to look at them; o

u?" she said.

trying to find out why it isn't so. Perhaps you'll be able to tell m

ur made a shadow on the whiteness of her throat. Her buffeting

said. "But why are you going? Don't