he new-comer, Mr. St. Paul, to his wife.

Mr. St. Paul attracted Minola's attention from the first. He was very
tall, as has been said, but somewhat stooped in the shoulders. He had a
perfectly bloodless face, with keen, bold blue eyes; his square, rather
receding forehead showed deep horizontal lines when he talked as if he
were an old man; and he was nearly bald. His square chin and his full,
firm lips were bare of beard or moustache. He might at times have seemed
an elderly man, and yet one soon came to the conclusion that he was a
young man looking prematurely old. There was a curious hardihood about
him, which was not swagger, and which had little of carelessness, or at
all events of joyousness, about it. He was evidently what would be
called a gentleman, but the gentleman seemed somehow to have got mixed
up with the rowdy. Minola promptly decided that she did not like him.
She could hear Mr. St. Paul talking in a loud, rapid, and strident voice
to Mrs. Money, apparently telling her, offhand, of travel and adventure.

Lady Limpenny had seized possession of Mr. Money, and was endeavoring to
get his advice about the sale of her china, and impress him with a sense
of the importance of saving her soul. Minola was near Mrs. Money, and
had just bowed to Victor Heron, when Mr. St. Paul turned his blue eyes
upon her.

"This is your elder daughter, I presume," he said. "May I be introduced,
Mrs. Money? Your husband told me she was not so handsome as her sister,
but I really can't admit that."

Mrs. Money was not certain for a moment whether her daughter Theresa
might not have come into the room; but when she saw that he was looking
at Miss Grey, she said, in her deep tone of melancholy kindness--

"No, this is not my daughter, Mr. St. Paul; and even with all a mother's
partiality, I have to own that Theresa is not nearly so handsome as this
young lady. Miss Grey, may I introduce Mr. St. Paul? Miss Grey comes
from Duke's-Keeton. Mr. St. Paul and you ought to be acquaintances."

"Oh, you come from Duke's-Keeton, Miss Grey"; and he dropped Mrs. Money,
and drew himself a chair next to Minola. "So do I--I believe I was born
there. Do you like the old place?"

"No; I don't think I like it."

"Nor I; in fact I hate it. Do you live there now?"

She explained that she had now left Keeton for good, and was living in
London. He laughed.

"I left it for good long ago, or for bad. I have been about the world
for ever so many