The Convert

et the moment Vida Levering entered, she knew from the questing glance Mrs. Fr

they, for their part, are impervious to such impacts. Vida Levering's beauty was not strictly of the éclatant type. If it did-as could not be denied-arrest the eye, its refusal to let attention go was mitigated by something in the quietness, the disarming softness, with which the hold was maintained. Men making her acquaintance frequently went through four distinct phases in their feeling about her. The first was the common natural one, the instant stirring of the pulses that beauty of any sort produces in persons having the eye that sees. The second stage was a rousing of the instinct to be 'on g

charm which he may almost persuade himself that he alone perceives, since this softly gracious creature seems so little to insist upon it-seems, indeed, to be herself unaware of its presence. Whereupon the man conceives a new idea of his own perspicacity in detecting a thing at once so agreeable and so little advertised. He may, with a woman of this kind, go long upon the third 'tack'-may, indeed, never know it was s

y, and though 'gone to fat,' as the vulgar say, had yet kept her complexion. With an air of genial authority, the pink-cheeked Lady John Ulland proceeded to appropriate the new-comer in the midst of a general hum of conversation, wh

, who make the social reputation of the hostess. There was in this particular case a theory, held even by those who did not care especially about Mrs. Freddy, that hers was an 'amusing,' above all, perhaps, a 'becoming,' house. People had a pleasant consciousness of looking uncommon well in her pretty drawing-room. Others said it wasn't the room, it was the lighting, which certainly was most discerningly done-not dim, and yet so far from gla

they not proc

ng asked, turning her slim neck in that de

, on the contrary, staring dark-visaged, gloomy, sibylline, at a leaflet advertising a charity concert, a document conspicuously left by Mrs. Freddy on a little table. On her way to rescue Mrs. Fox-Moore from her desert island o

Mrs. Fox-Moore to prolonged exile, i

and delicately offering him an opportunity to make an

s beard-but his eyes ha

; but his tone added,

iends since the new Government came in. But you really mean it-that nobod

w with characteristic laconism, and F

minutes more,' said

d the other man, his eyes still on the young woma

s though she had no need to manufacture conversation while

ded the great ma

- Oh, there he is!' Seeing her hungry husband safely anchored in front of the iris gown, instantly she abandoned the idea of disturbing him. 'After all,' she said, turning again to Haycroft, who had stood the image of stolid unimpressionableness-'after all, Freddy's right. Since she's going to sit beside you at dinner, it's a good reason for not making you known to each other before. Or perhaps you never experience that awful feeling of being talked out by the time you go down, and not having a single thing left--' She saw that the great man was not going to vouchsafe any contribution to her small attempt to keep the ball

to Haycroft ('the fella who's bringing the country to the

f amiable boredom, 'that you were discussing what used in the

phrases to my friend,' Mrs. Fredd

tion by proclaiming that she has th

said Mrs. Freddy, gaily.

ng silent witho

he lady nearest him, she gave no sig

g Vida in silence! Most men like to be

derstanding. 'Yes, yes. It is well known what children we are. Pleased with a rattle!' Then, as if fearing he might be goin

e anxiously, for his complime

to look at you, would suppose that your spir

zard. All I mind is seeing Freddy fussed.' She turned with an engaging smile to her minister again. 'Freddy has the most angelic tem

rly wicked monkey. He abandoned Mrs. Townley with enthusiasm in orde

it make you morose as it does Freddy?' she asked, with an air of comic terror. 'Then we won't wait.' She tos

r knowledge.' In a silent but rather horrible laugh he wrinkled up his aged nose,

minister. 'Mr. Fox-Moore-Sir-oh! how absurd! I was going to introduce two pillars

oft, cordially taking old Mr. Fox-Moore's hand. 'Beside yo

Freddy's head, poised an inst

it to be good for them on the whole. Mrs. Graham Townley was acknowledged to be a person of much character. Though her interest in public affairs was bounded only by the limits of the Empire, she had found time to reform the administration of a great London hospital. Also she was related to a great many people. In the ultra smart set she of course had no raison d'être, but in th

ady John Ulland, as calmly convinc

ece, the charming g

he'd have turned back and telephoned that the hors

orough won'

with a nervous, rather angry air, though the ropes of fine pearls s

' said Mrs. Freddy; 'and I shall

oman,' remarked the girl in pink, a

in to my house,' said the disc

ile. 'She has a daughter, and so have most of the

ey never turn up at al

jaculated Lady Whyte

times they don

ard of such

on instead of being drawn into it. 'Twice in this last year I've sat with an empty place on one side of me at a d

th times?' asked

t houses, but

red Borrodaile in

come disorganized. I always feel'-the hostess addressed herself to the minister and the pea

anges in social life initiated by the use

ost of us gratify the dormant cruelty in human nature by keeping an eagle eye on the wretched late ones wh

whether these particular culprits

merely look abject and flustered, and whisper agitated lies. Persona

ng Vida leave her own animated group to join her sister. Mrs. Freddy made

conversation to

Whyteleafe?'

hat am I to do with you? She'

t cross-

u aren't talking to her;' and Mrs. Freddy overtook Vida just as she reache

upon Freddy's remarks, was levelling at Mrs. Freddy the critical eye that says, 'Now I shall see if I can determine just how miserably conscious you are that dinner's unpardonably late, everybody starving, and since you've only just rung, that you have at least

knew a trick worth two of that. She cou

nd said the most awful, dreadful, appalling thing!

Freddy, with an air of r

ida Levering and that f

hyteleafe, obviously disappointed

h she'd never steppe

Freddy, sticking

't look at her. Oh,

ng? She looks as if she

s looks like that,' Lady W

" she writes in her stiff little notes; and you're reminded that way, wit

else to do with all that mone

t got a pe

thought the Leverings

te that Fox-Moore woman!' Mrs. Freddy laughed ruefully. 'And I'm sure her

en't tol

adn't forgotten, for I had Hermione Heriot here on purpose to meet him. And I t

ring it off?' sai

dreadful," I said, "to see a fresh yo

leafe, genuinely shocked.

nough sometimes," still I never never remembered the Fox-Moore story! And I went on about it

for making speeches

eleafe, Mrs. Freddy blushed and st

e-'"he thinks," I said, "at any age he's a fit mate for a fresh young creature in her teens. If they only knew-the dreadful old ogres!" Yes, I said that. I piled it on-oh, I stuck at nothing! "The men think an ugly old woman monopolizes all the opportunities humanity offers for repulsiveness. But there's nothing on the face of the earth as hideous," I said, "as an ugly old man. Doesn't it stand to reason? He's bound to go greater lengths than any woman can aspire to. There's more of him to be

isters as he and Vida went down-'I always know the kind of p

ressively high-piled hair towering over the bald pate of the minister, as, side b

ely intelligent, th

ughed Vida. 'We are rathe

ondered, too. I even so

el

. "I never ask the woman," she said,

ty"-with you

aven. We make the

call it "scratch" when she's got an

cards inscribed respectively with their names. 'As for the Ambassador, he's an old friend o

re by newspaperdom and all political England. But Mrs. Townley, albeit not exactly old, was one of those old-fashioned women who take what used to be called 'an intelligent interest in politics.' You may pick her out in any drawing-room from the fact that politicians shun her like the plague. Rich, childless, lonely, with more wits than occupation, practically shelved at a time when her intellectual life is most alert-the Mrs. Townleys of the world do, it must be admitted, labour under the delusion that men fighting the battle of public life, go out to dine for the express purpose of telling the intelligent female 'all about it.' She is a staunch believer

legram, Miss Levering bent her head,

to talk to you til

lint in his little eyes; and then with a bur

itions!' said Miss

he lowered his voice-'pr

o so far as to

est had been a good one. A little ashame

so much hate talking about as

A

of something muc

ne did not wholly re

rtant?' he

rgiven for asking), what Order that is yo

ing humane (and even genial sitting before Mrs. Freddy's menu), he would have refused to show the whirring wheels of his watch to a nice child. The two got on so well that the anxious look quite faded out of Mrs. Freddy's face, and she devoted herself gaily to the distinguished foreigner at her side. But Haycroft at a party was, like so many Englishmen, as the lilies of the field. They toil not, neither do they spin. The man Vida had rescued from Mrs. Graham Townley was, when in the society of women, so accustomed to seeing them take on themselves the onus of entertainment, was hi

l. Not at

we left "Orders" and "Honours" half an hour a

amended-'a pursuit wort

air of half-amused discontent wit

woman on his other side. 'Terrible person,' he whisper

ade common cause in heaping rid

be only a case of sour grapes on my part. I'm af

. Was it consciousness of this being the second time during the evening that she had employed the too common vaunt of the woman of that particular world? Did some ironic echo reach her of that same boa

to be overtaken by some unaccountable qualm, 'What a desert life would be,' he

more oases in the desert,' she said i

with veiled appreh

and seemed about to remind her of her pledge). 'It shall ordain,' she went on, 'that those who have found satisfactory hu

s gravit

n, the widows and spinsters, who haven't got

turn he for a moment feared. 'But I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll support a measure that shall make an allowan

ould be the woman's title to honour! She should be given

what then would

d away defini

daile, a little mo

hat it is that seizes hold of me after I've b

, and glanced past Vida

saying a slig

ike loa

your neighb

person,' she said, with something like enthu

e board with an air of la

who dares to sit quite silent and eat her

aying you co

ome over me,' she said, her eyes in their turn making a tour of the table, and coming back to Borrodaile w

doing the

ng one thing. And al

elled up and down, and ret

ht and main to amuse the men, and all the men a

aughing, 'to hear of yo

way from her voice-'I suppose I should have said something

, as usual in England, the talk was all tête-à-tête. The res

ing to be agreeable when I'm with you. I'm sorry'-he was speaking in th

me you succeed to admiration. But

he l

me, you know. Now, can you l

ny it?

ay you've tried as hard to entertain your o

d at it. After all, it's rather

it is-but it's rather a Geisha

ed, it's a woman's privil

utes are nob

face was wholly reassuring, but

I'd say that sound

t the lion's mane and the male bird's crest, and