Consequences

ot

rmally announced at the beginning of the year

should imagine," was Lady

and hoped for an opportunity of

congratulation, and Alex had only a glimpse of her at the crowded wedding, exquisitely pale a

reely of his adoration for her friend, Alex, with awkward fe

piness, and wrung her hand warmly; but alas! his eyes failed to answer her gaze, and

guely disappointe

that which had surrounded her launch into the great world, and Lady Isabel occasionally betrayed a hint of disappointment that no family

Barbara who was the

on the flat of her back. Old Nurse pitied and was much inclined to spoil her, dosed her religiously with a glass of

arbara inconsistently. "Alex wen

ut I certainly shan't send you to that sort of establishment, after the trick they played me with Alex, sendin' her bac

ra su

own accord to implore that Barbara might be released from the schoolroom. She was

dren are!" Lady Isa

he recalcitrant young person, which, to the annoyance of Alex, caused

was unanimous on that point excepting one or two ultra-Catholic old aunts of Sir Francis-but to a charming Marqui

t galleries and places.... That girl of the Duchess went there to be finished just before she came out, and loved it, and she c

Isabel's enthu

as so discontented and troublesome at home, her parents felt obliged, for the sake of the younger children, to send her away from them. Barbara, following her wont, said

in," she chanted. "I knew th

by her continual reference to an approaching triumphant emancipation for her, until Cedric, home for the Easter holidays, and expert

pril, and Alex proceeded to enter upon

uccess than her fi

iends, and her mother's contemporaries accordingly took

ke success, it is truer still that not

roundings only interested her as a background to her own personality, and as she derived no pleasure, but only disappointment and mortification, fr

o longed to please and to attract, was as utterly devoid of that magnetic charm possessed by other girls in a lesser,

h nor her beauty

ing dark circles beneath her eyes, and the physical fatigue always engendered in her by

air bête a

es, as she felt, against her own will, her features stiffening into the st

compassion in her voice, as she glanced at her daughter; and the implication that her

he days before her marriage, and her excessive décolletage

Curzon Street, but Alex knew that she would not be allowed to go

uldn't dream of allowin' any daughter of mine to go and dine with peopl

fectionate towards her children, was adam

ou to go on with the acquaintance. That Goldstein woman is g

na?vely how the phase that had been used in connection with Quee

, to Alex, symbolized she knew not what of o

herself of a secret suspicion that, although Lady Isabel might have rebuked, she would not h

emed desirous of talking personalities. They made perfunctory remarks about the decorations of the

en them must be sustained by convers

d joined with real interest in a discussion about books with a man a great deal older than herself, who happened to be placed ne

your other side-not the one who took you down, but th

old me he wrote books. It was so interesting;

ed in sudden flattened tones, "don't go and get a reputation for being cleve

nother item to be added to that invisible score of reasons f

areful simulation of those attributes which she had been told would provoke admirati

by success, she continued to ac

very much disillusioned. This was not real life as she

lity that should reveal the wherefore of all

aid to her rather plaintively, "You must try and look more cheerful, Alex, dear, when I take you

ent at disappointing her mother and fath

Scotland, she met

dishly proud of saying, when her hostess brought th

et before! I kno

non-committal smile. It was evident that he had not the faintest recollection of t

I remember you coming over to see us quite well, with your br

hich remained quite vividly in her own memory should always appear

ur cousins for a long wh

e. She married, you know-a f

ick of jealousy that now habitually assailed her almost e

married?" she mad

a. I've some idea of going over to New York myself next year, and I supp

New York," said Alex, with th

ve a mad idea of perhaps writing a book one of these days, probably in the form of a novel, because it's only by gilding the pill that you can get the great B.P. to swallow it-but it'l

e initials that he had used-"the great B.P.

haracter to the straightness of his features. He had grown a little, fair moustache, contrasting pleasantly with his light brown eyes. The boy

lace next to hers at breakfast on the following morning, and aske

o," but something within her attached such an exaggerated impor

shall look out for y

e party, which was a small one; and Lady Isabel, declaring herself obliged

h the five men, two of whom h

He talked a great deal, and was as full of theories as in their schoolroom days, and Alex, on her s

motives, it seemed to her to be so important that Noel Cardew should continue to address his attention exclus

st time her own appearance was entirely satisfactory. She felt self-confident and happy, and after dinner, when the

said Noe

ther through the o

with him under the glowing red globe of the full moon. Noel talked about his bo

thing in the world," he declared earnestly. "I

a breathles

ng in words of more than two syllables it's affectation. Oxford and

on talking very eagerly about the scheme that he

hy I want to travel, before I start serious work. Of course, I've got a mass of notes already. Just ideas, that have struck me as I go along. I'm afraid I'm fearfully observant, and I generally size up the people I meet, and then make notes about them-or else simply dismiss them fr

life, thought that people mattered much more than anything el

ook at things the same way, d

d with shy fervour, her

he subconsciously felt the damp ground to be doing to her satin slippers. But presently Lady Isabel called to her from the window, and she