filled the air.

On the outskirts of the throng, which pressed forward to greet the host
and to press the fingers of the seer, lingered the two young men, one of
whom had stirred the unstirable. Norris looked vaguely around as at
unknown faces, and Dick nodded in this or that direction in that offhand
manner which invites people to keep their distance rather than to seek
further intercourse, but the woman who was handsome and thirty refused
to be held at arm's length.

"How-do, Mr. Percival? Glad to see you back. You have the genius of
distinction, even in small things. How natural that the Swami should
single you out for notice and so announce your home-coming to the
world!"

"Is this the world?"

"Our little world," Mrs. Appleton laughed; and as she spoke she peered
curiously at Norris with the air of a naturalist who needs as many
specimens of young men as possible for her collection. Dick smiled,
whether with amusement or with cordiality it would be impossible to say.

"Mrs. Appleton, may I introduce Mr. Norris, who has come here as a new
citizen. Apart from other considerations, we are grateful to anybody
that swells the census, aren't we?"

"So glad!" she murmured. "Mr. Percival must bring you to my lawn-party
next week."

But even while Norris expressed his thanks, Dick's eyes wandered, until,
with a cheerful start, he caught his companion's arm.

"There she is, Ellery," he said. "This way."

Norris knew in his heart that he was waiting for that summons, and he
turned and followed as Percival began a slow progress through the crowd
toward that uncompromising stiff-lined bench of the kind that Mr. Early
affected, where sat the girl like a cameo, beside a woman somewhat older
than herself.

The younger woman lifted her eyes and caught from afar the greeting of
the advancing men. That there should be no sudden illumination, no swift
blush in her nod of recognition, gave Dick a slight feeling of
irritation. He had regarded a little polite display of delight as in
some way his right. But if she was undemonstrative, she had the virtues
of her failing, for there was a certain serenity even in the broad curve
with which her hair clung to her temples, and in the over-crowded room
her smile was as refreshing as a draft from a cool spring. Both of these
women were marked by a repose of manner which distinguished them from
the eager crowd that was pushing toward the latest new apostle. It was
the elder who put