ient to the hand and not inconvenient to the body, and were so
placed as at once to strengthen the garment and add decorative lines of
stitching.

In this, as in so many other points we had now to observe, there was
shown the action of a practical intelligence, coupled with fine artistic
feeling, and, apparently, untrammeled by any injurious influences.

Our first step of comparative freedom was a personally conducted tour of
the country. No pentagonal bodyguard now! Only our special tutors,
and we got on famously with them. Jeff said he loved Zava like an
aunt--"only jollier than any aunt I ever saw"; Somel and I were as
chummy as could be--the best of friends; but it was funny to watch Terry
and Moadine. She was patient with him, and courteous, but it was like
the patience and courtesy of some great man, say a skilled, experienced
diplomat, with a schoolgirl. Her grave acquiescence with his most
preposterous expression of feeling; her genial laughter, not only
with, but, I often felt, at him--though impeccably polite; her
innocent questions, which almost invariably led him to say more than he
intended--Jeff and I found it all amusing to watch.

He never seemed to recognize that quiet background of superiority. When
she dropped an argument he always thought he had silenced her; when she
laughed he thought it tribute to his wit.

I hated to admit to myself how much Terry had sunk in my esteem. Jeff
felt it too, I am sure; but neither of us admitted it to the other.
At home we had measured him with other men, and, though we knew his
failings, he was by no means an unusual type. We knew his virtues too,
and they had always seemed more prominent than the faults. Measured
among women--our women at home, I mean--he had always stood high. He
was visibly popular. Even where his habits were known, there was no
discrimination against him; in some cases his reputation for what was
felicitously termed "gaiety" seemed a special charm.

But here, against the calm wisdom and quiet restrained humor of these
women, with only that blessed Jeff and my inconspicuous self to compare
with, Terry did stand out rather strong.

As "a man among men," he didn't; as a man among--I shall have to say,
"females," he didn't; his intense masculinity seemed only fit complement
to their intense femininity. But here he was all out of drawing.

Moadine was a big woman, with a balanced strength that seldom showed.
Her eye was as quietly watchful as