could take so questionable a shape; lastly, the centre of
the collection, a "polka mazurka harmony in yellow," by Sardanapalus
Stiggins, the great impressionist painter of the day. Chrysophrasia paid
five hundred pounds for this little gem.

But it was not enough for Miss Dabstreak to have collected so many
worthless objects of price in her own little corner of the room. She had
encumbered the tables with useless articles of pottery; she had fastened
a green plate between the better of the two Hogarths and an Arundel
chromo-lithograph, and connected it with both the pictures by a drooping
scarf of faint pink silk; she had adorned the engraving of Raphael's
Transfiguration with a bit of Broussa embroidery, because it looked so
very Oriental; and she had bedizened Mary Carvel's water-color view of
Carisbrooke Castle with peacock's feathers, because they looked so very
English. There was no spot in the room where Chrysophrasia's hand had
not fallen, and often it had fallen heavily. She had respected John
Carvel's easy-chair and revolving bookcase, but she had respected
nothing else.

There was a fourth person, however, who had set her especial impress on
the appearance of the room where all met in common. I mean Hermione
Carvel. Educated and brought up among the conflicting tastes and views
of her parents and her aunt, she had imbibed some of the characteristics
of each, although in widely different degrees. At that time, perhaps,
the various traits which were united in her had not yet blended
harmoniously so as to form a satisfactory whole. The resultant of so
many more or less conflicting forces was prone to extremes of enthusiasm
or of indifference. Her heart was capable of feeling the warmest
sympathy, but was liable also to conceive unwarrantable antipathies; her
mind was of admirable quality, fairly well gifted and sensibly trained;
though not marvelously quick to understand, yet tenacious and slow to
forget. The constant attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable opinions
of her mother and aunt had given Hermione a certain versatility of
thought, and a certain capacity to see both sides of the question when
not under the momentary influence of her enthusiasm. She is, and was
even then, a fine type of the English girl who has grown up under the
most favorable circumstances; that is to say, with an excellent
education and a decided preference for the country. It is not necessary
to allow her any of the privileges and im