the part; but--well, Cagliostro was
a weaver of spells."

There was a pause before he said:

"Yes, but the art did not die with him. He had a daughter to whom he
taught his art."

"Not that I ever heard of," said she. "What do you think of Phyllis
Ayrton?"

"I think that she is the dearest friend of my dearest friend," he
replied.

"And I should like her to become the dearest friend of my dearest
friend."

"That would be impossible," he said.

Then the felicitous valedictory word was said to the great actor and
actress, and Mrs. Linton's carriage received Phyllis. Lord Earlscourt
took a seat in Mr. Courtland's hansom.

"What do you think about Mr. Courtland?" inquired Ella of her dearest
friend, as they lay back with their heads very close together.

There was a long pause before Phyllis replied:

"I really don't know what I think about him. He is, I suppose, the
bravest man alive at present."

"What? Is that the result of your half hour's chat with him?"

"Oh, dear, no! but all the same, it's pleasant for a girl to feel that
she has been talking to a brave man. It gives one a sense of--of--is it
of being quite safe?"

"Good gracious, no! just the opposite--that is----Oh, you don't
understand."

"No, I don't."

"Never mind. Tell me what he talked about?"

"Oh, everything! God."

"I know that it was in the air. He has ideas, I believe. He never
talked on that topic to me. I hope you found him to be quite sound,
theologically."

"But it seems rather funny, doesn't it?" said Phyllis; "but I really
don't think that when I was listening to him I considered for a moment
whether he was sound or the opposite in his views."

"Funny? It would have been rather funny if you had done that," laughed
Ella. "The question that a healthy girl--and you are a healthy girl,
Phyllis--asks herself after talking to such a man as Herbert Courtland
is not, Is his theology sound? What healthy girl cares the fraction of
a farthing about the theology of a man with a face like Herbert
Courtland's and arms like Herbert Courtland's? You talked with him for
half an hour, and then come to me and say that you suppose he is the
bravest man alive in the world. That was right--quite right. That is
just what every healthy girl should say. We understand a man's thews and
sinews; we likewise understand what bravery in a man is, but what do we
know, or, for that matter, care about his theology, whether it is sound
or the opposite? No