more than what every
woman would deny feeling in a society where no woman says what she means
or does what she says. And can any praise be greater than that?'

'Ha-ha! Capital!'

'All her verses seem to me,' said a rather stupid person, 'to be simply--

"Tral'-la-la-lal'-la-la-la',
Tral'-la-la-lal'-la-la-lu',
Tral'-la-la-lal'-la-la-lalla',
Tral'-la-la-lu'."

When you take away the music there is nothing left. Yet she is plainly a
woman of great culture.'

'Have you seen what the London Light says about them--one of the finest
things I have ever read in the way of admiration?' continued Ladywell,
paying no attention to the previous speaker. He lingered for a reply,
and then impulsively quoted several lines from the periodical he had
named, without aid or hesitation. 'Good, is it not?' added Ladywell.

They assented, but in such an unqualified manner that half as much
readiness would have meant more. But Ladywell, though not experienced
enough to be quite free from enthusiasm, was too experienced to mind
indifference for more than a minute or two. When the ladies had
withdrawn, the young man went on--

'Colonel Staff said a funny thing to me yesterday about these very poems.
He asked me if I knew her, and--'

'Her? Why, he knows that it is a lady all the time, and we were only
just now doubting whether the sex of the writer could be really what it
seems. Shame, Ladywell!' said his friend Neigh.

'Ah, Mr. Ladywell,' said another, 'now we have found you out. You know
her!'

'Now--I say--ha-ha!' continued the painter, with a face expressing that
he had not at all tried to be found out as the man possessing
incomparably superior knowledge of the poetess. 'I beg pardon really,
but don't press me on the matter. Upon my word the secret is not my own.
As I was saying, the Colonel said, "Do you know her?"--but you don't care
to hear?'

'We shall be delighted!'

'So the Colonel said, "Do you know her?" adding, in a most comic way,
"Between U. and E., Ladywell, I believe there is a close
affinity"--meaning me, you know, by U. Just like the Colonel--ha-ha-ha!'

The older men did not oblige Ladywell a second time with any attempt at
appreciation; but a weird silence ensued, during which the smile upon
Ladywell's face became frozen to painful permanence.

'Meaning by E., you know, the "E" of the poems--heh-heh!' he added.

'It was a very humorous incident certainly,' said his friend Neigh,