new
much about horses, and as he read intently, she could watch him
unobserved. At last their eyes met, and when Alice turned away her face
she felt that he was looking at her, and, perhaps getting nervous under
his examination, she made a movement to stir the fire.

'Will you allow me?' he said, rising from his chair. 'I beg your pardon,
but, if you will allow me, I will arrange the fire.'

Alice let him have the poker, and when he had knocked in the coal-crust
and put on some fresh fuel, he said:

'If it weren't for me I don't know what would become of this fire. I
believe the old porter goes to sleep and forgets all about it. Now and
again he wakes up and makes a deal of fuss with a shovel and a broom.'

'I really can't say, we only came up from Galway to-day.'

'Then you don't know the famous Shelbourne Hotel! All the events of life
are accomplished here. People live here, and die here, and flirt here,
and, I was going to say, marry here--but hitherto the Shelbourne
marriages have resulted in break-offs--and we quarrel here; the friends
of to-day are enemies to-morrow, and then they sit at different ends of
the room. Life in the Shelbourne is a thing in itself, and a thing to be
studied.'

Alice laughed again, and again she continued her conversation.

'I really know nothing of the Shelbourne. I was only here once before,
and then only for a few days last summer, when I came home from school.'

'And now you are here for the Drawing-Room?'

'Yes; but how did you guess that?'

'The natural course of events: a young lady leaves school, she spends
four or five months at home, and then she is taken to the
Lord-Lieutenant's Drawing-Room.'

She liked him none the better for what he had said, and began to wonder
how she might bring the conversation to a close. But when he spoke again
she forgot her intentions, and allowed his voice to charm her.

'I think you told me,' he said, 'that you came up from Galway to-day; may
I ask you from what side of the county?'

Another piece of impertinence. Why should he question her? And yet she
answered him.

'We live near Gort--do you know Gort?'

'Oh yes, I have been travelling for the last two months in Ireland. I
spent nearly a fortnight in Galway. Lord Dungory lives near Gort. Do you
know him?'

'Very well indeed. He is our nearest neighbour; we see him nearly every
day. Do you know him?'

'Yes, a little. I have met him in London. If I had not been so pressed
fo