"She is very charming," I agreed. "It is her manner, quite as much as
her face, isn't it? She must be well worth knowing."

"We think so," said he. He seemed to be regarding me quite steadily. I
wondered uneasily if I were not looking well. The rooms seemed rather
over-warm. The presence of so many people in such a small space is apt
to make the air oppressive. Also I remembered that the effect of
pale-gray is not to heighten one's colouring.

Wistaria, all in filmy black, from which her white shoulders rose like
a flower, wore one splendid American Beauty rose. Somehow I felt, quite
suddenly, that pale-gray is a meaningless tint, the mere shadow of a
colour, of less character than white, of immeasurably less beauty than
simple black itself. I caught the Philosopher's eye apparently fixed for
a moment upon my violets, and I wondered, with a queer little sensation
of disquiet, if even they seemed to be without character also.

Then dinner was announced, and I shook myself mentally, and looked up
smiling at my Mining Engineer, who was truly a man worth knowing and a
most pleasant gentleman besides, and went to dinner with him determined
that if I must look characterless I would not be characterless, nor make
my companion long to get away.

Wistaria and the Philosopher sat exactly opposite. The Mining Engineer
on my one side, and the Judge on my other, kept me too busy to spend
much time in noting Wistaria's captivating presence or the Philosopher's
absorption. Yet, at moments when some sally of the Skeptic's, who sat
upon Wistaria's other side, brought the attention of the whole company
to bear upon that quarter of the table, I found myself unable to help
noting two things. One was that I had never seen the Philosopher so
roused and ready of speech; the other, that I had never quite
appreciated how distinguished he has, of late years, grown in
appearance. Possibly this was because I had not had the chance to
view him under just these conditions; possibly, also, it was because
he literally was growing distinguished in the world of scientific
research, and his name becoming one cited as an authority in a certain
important field.

The dinner itself I cannot describe, for the sufficient reason that I
cannot now recall one solitary thing I ate. But the impression remains
with me that it was really an extraordinarily simple dinner, that
everything was delicious, and that one rose up from it with a sense of
having been