Lady Connie

ith a pettish accent of fatigue. "Everything's perfectly comfortable, and if

nt of St. Cyprian's College, Oxford. There seemed to be a slight bluish mist over the garden and the building, a mist starred with patches of white and dazzlingly green leaf. And, above all, there was an evening sky, peaceful and luminous, from which a light wind blew towards the two girls sitting by the open window. One, the elder, had a face like a Watteau sketch, with black velvety eyes, hair drawn back from

to make a fuss. Connie, I understand, is to pay us a good round sum for h

nt," said the other rather sulkily. "She's pro

twenty-odd thousand a year. We're paupers, and she's got to put up

would have been more agreeable to buy frocks and go to London for a theatre. She was a great power in the house, and both her languid, incompetent mother, and her pretty sister were often afraid of her. Nora was a "Home Student," and had just begun to work

iving himself to the artistic researches and the cosmopolitan society which suited his health and his tastes. He was a dilettante of the old sort, incurably in love with living, in spite of the loss of his wife, and his only son; in spite also of an impaired heart--in the physical sense--and various other drawbacks. He came across the bright girl student, discovered that she could talk very creditably about manuscripts and illuminations, gave her leave to work in his own library, where he possessed a few priceless things, and presently found her company, her soft voice, and her eager, confiding eyes quite indispensable. His elderly sister, Lady Winifred, who kept house for him, frowned on the business in vain;

o the Riviera for the winter, and now in May, about a year after the death of her parents, she was coming for the first time to make acquaintance with the Hooper family, with whom, according to her father's will, she was to make her home till she was twenty-one. None of them had ever seen her, except on two occasions; once, at a hotel in London; and once, some ten

meet her husband's niece at the station, ran persistently on her own childish recollections

o, Alice. Can't you see her black silk stockings--and her new hat with those awfully pretty flowers, made of feathers? She had a silk frock too--white, very skimp, and short; and enormously long black legs, as thin as sticks; and her hair in plaits. I felt a thick lump

" said Alice, who was not much inte

't somehow occur to me. A

glancing, as she spoke, at the reflection of herself in an

sh she'd come and get it over. I want to get back to m

she may spend it, if she wants to. He's trustee, but Uncle Risborough's letter to him said she was

t. "I wonder how many people in Oxford have two thou

d. The advent of this girl cousin, with her title, her good looks, her money, and her unfair advanta

laughed Nora. "Not she! Oxford's not

wasn't an enormous pull everywhere to hav

-pursues 'the good and the beautiful'"--said Nora, taking a flying leap on to the window-si

d that were not doctors' carriages, when the wives of professors and tutors went out to dinner in "chairs" drawn by men, and no person within the magic circle of the University knew anybody--to speak of--in the town outside. The University indeed, at this later moment, still more than held its own, socially, amid the waves of new population that threatened to submerge it; and the occasional spectacle of retired generals and colonels,

's sister had not--past all denying--had more partners and a greater success than herself, and if Herbert Pryce himself had not been--just a little--casual and inattentive. But after all they had had two or three glorious supper dances, and he certainly would have kissed her hand, while t

able him to marry. Alice suddenly had a vague vision of her own wedding; the beautiful central figure--she would certainly look beautiful in her wedding dress!--bowing so gracefully; the bridesmaids behind, in her favourite colours, white and pale green; and the tall man beside her. But Herbert Pryce was not really tall, and not particularly good-looking, th

arge hanging cupboard made by curtaining one of the panelled recesses of the wall, a chest of drawers, a bed, a small dressing-table and glass, a carpet that was the remains of one which had originally covered the drawing-room for many years, an armchair, a writing-table, and curtains which having once been blue had now been dyed a serviceable though ugly dark red. In Nora's eyes it was all comfortable and nice. She herself had insisted on

m which had a dormer window in the roof, two strips of carpet on the boards, a bed, a washing-stand, a painted chest of drawers, a table, with an old looking-glass, and two chairs. "Well, that's all I have!" thought Nora defiantly. But a certa

. Alice too had come out into the hall, looking shy and uncomfortable. Dr. Hooper emerged from his study

led hall, looking round her. "Welcome, my dear Connie!" said Dr. Hooper, cordia

owed her niece into the hall. "And the draughts

an between forty and fifty, small and plain, except for a pair of rather fine eyes, which, in her youth, while her cheeks were still pink,

to his niece--"This is Alice, Constance--and Nora! You'll

said a clear, high-pitched voice

t them steadily, and suddenly Nora was aware of that expression of which she had so vivid although so childish a reco

awing-room door. Her face had cleared suddenly. It did not seem to her, at leas

er Annette first. She's muc

Annette, who wore a rather cross, flushed air, turned round every now and then to look frowningly at the old gabled house into which it was being carried, as th

cried Lady Constance. "Just get the boxes carried

She stepped into the hall, and spoke peremptorily to the wh

erican Saratogas, and two smaller trunks--"carried up

er get any of those boxes up the top-stairs. And if we put th

id Nora, snatching up a bag.

oom. The girl hesitated, laughed, and finally yielded, seeing that Nora was really in charge. Dr. H

"at least in some points." The girl turned away abruptly, a

very sick. It wa

l look after her," sa

rom a very small and slender hand. She was dressed in deep mourning with crape still upon her hat and dress, though it was

er eyes wandered round the group at the tea-table, her uncle, a man of originally strong physique, ma

man Aunt Ellen is!"

all about her rheumatisms--and the east winds--and how she ought to go to Buxton every year--only Uncle Hooper wouldn't take things seriously

He put his niece through many questions as to the year which had elapsed sin

But they seem--to judge from their letters--to be very nice people," said the Pro

d the girl warmly. "They

very gay,

fternoons. The Kings knew everybody.

n't stron

e girl, looking at him with

unts in the Queen, or the Sketch, of "smart society" on the Riviera, and it was plain to her that Constance had been dreadfully "in it." It would not apparently have been possible to be more "in it." She was again conscious of a hot envy of her cousin which made her unhappy. Also Connie's good looks were becoming more evident. She had taken off her hat, and all the distinction of her small head, her slender neck and sloping shoulders, was more visible; her self-possession, too, the ease

the word "prince," and her at

n. They used to take us out riding into the mountains, or into Italy." She paused a moment, and then said carelessly--as though to keep up the conver

sly that she had forgotten to take her tabloids after lunch, be

him," she said vaguely,

him. He was intro

arcely have been colder. The eyes of the gi

dn't li

gives himself suc

ation seemed to be of no interest to

. But I understand he's the heir to his old uncle, Lord Dagnall, and is going to be enormously ri

ctively. "There's a whole set of them. Other people call th

better Greek iambics than that fellow," said the Reader, pausing in the middle of his cup of tea to murmur certain Greek lines to himself. They were part of the

setting her small mouth. "You don't expec

tance Bledlow, rai

pread of drinking in college, all caused by the bad example of the Falloden set. She ta

We did!" And she made a little gesture with her hand, i

ysical exertion, or the consciousness of her own virtue. She found

work, carryin

onishment. "I say, I am sorry! Why did you? I'm sure

ross the table, all charm s

g. I was worth two of him," said Nora trium

Constance Bledlow laughed. And her laugh touched her face wi

e care how I

ded over

. She said I might as

Mrs. Hooper. "You always

ulous how flabby girls are. There isn't a girl in my lecture I can't put down. If you like, I'll teach you

amining Nora, as she had already examined Alice, and that odd gleam i

ly exercise I want. You said I might have a horse, Uncle Ewen

nt you to have anything you wish for--in reason--my dear Con

woman behind the te

ne in Oxford--she'd be

e flushed

ke a groom,

e half plaintive tone of one who must speak although n

k it over," said Dr. Hooper cheerfully. "Now w

tairs together, No

room," said Nora abruptly. "I

inging so many things! But w

excuse. The newcomer suddenly felt herself cr

e rose from her knees, showing a brick-red countenance of wrath that strove in vain for

having a rest, as I told you! I

rdrobe for you, and this young lady says there isn't one. There's that hanging cupboard"--she pointed witheringly to the curtained recess--"your dresses will be ruined there in a fo

Annette returned to the angry

looking round her in perplexity. "Neve

Nora's turn

ather wouldn't like it. We'll find somethi

of the twilled cotton sheets and marcella quilt which were all the Hoopers ever allowed either to themselves or their guests. They had been replaced by sheets 'of the finest and smoothest linen, embroidered with a crest and monogram in the

earl and silver. Every brush and bottle was crested and initialled. The humble looking-glass, which Nora, who was something of a carpenter, had he

se things?" The girl stood open-mouth

t th

the toilet-tab

on showed an answ

d stiffly. "We always took our own lin

being stolen!" Nora took up one of the

people's!" With a slight but haughty change of manner, th

hing like them!"

eling certain that the maid who was gesticulating, now towards the ceiling, and now towards the floor, was complaining both of her own room and of the

thought the girl of seventeen indignantly. "And in

cousin sank down on the armchair, and broke

've got to try. Of course you

'd get on then!" said Annette, gri

ll. But really we might give away a lot o

eply; but went on busily with her unpacking. If the clothes were to be got rid of, t

ke, but cut by the best dressmaker in Nice. She looked extraordinarily tall and slim in it and very foreign. Her maid clasped a long string of opals, which was her only ornament, about her neck. She gave one look at herself in the glass, holding herself proudly, one might have said arrogantly. But

hole year--nearly?" she asked herse

n unpacking. The topmost one represented a group of young men and maidens standing under a group of stone pin

herself, she stood awhile, thinking; her face alive with an ex