of her
pre-eminence more vividly than ever before his mind. He found himself
looking everywhere but at them too, and listening with an acutely
sensitive ear for sounds quite other than those of their various lips. But
eternal disappointment rewarded his eyes and ears. She was nowhere.

So he talked blindly about nothing to all the nobodies and laughed
stupidly over all their stupidities until--suddenly and without any
warning--a fearful jump in his throat sent the mercury in his constitution
shooting up to 160, and he saw, heard, felt, gasped, and knew, that that
radiant angel in silver tissue who had just entered the farther end of the
room was indubitably Herself.

(Married!)

He quite forgot who, what and where he was. There was a somebody talking
to him--a very awful and bony young lady, but she faded so completely out
of the general scheme of his immediate present that all the use he made of
her was to stare over her head at the distant apparition that was become,
now and forever, his All in All. The distant apparition had not lied when
she had told him up in her brother's room that she too, looked "nice" when
dressed for dinner. Only the word "nice" was as watered milk to the
champagne of her appearance. She was gowned superbly and her throat and
arms were half bared by the folds of silvered lace; her hair fitted into
the back of her neck in the smoothest mass of puffs and coils, and the
curl on her forehead was more distracting than ever.

(Married!)

She seemed to be speaking to everyone, and everyone seemed to be crowding
around her. He couldn't go up like everyone else, because the awful and
bony young lady was talking hard at him and heightened her charms with a
smile that took up two-fifths of her face, and wrinkled all the rest.

Her name was Lome--Maude Lome. He knew that she must be a relative without
being told, because otherwise she wouldn't have been invited at all.
Anyone could divine that.

"Oh, isn't dear Betty just lovely?" this fearful freak said. "I think
she's just too lovely for anything! She's my cousin, you know; we're often
mistaken for one another."

"I can well believe it," said Jack, heavily, not ceasing to stare beyond
as he said it.

(Married!)

"Oh, you're flattering me! Because she's ever so much prettier than I am,
and I know it."

He didn't reply. It had suddenly come over him to wonder whether there
ever had been an authentic case of heartbreak. Because he had the mos