r to plunge _in medias res_ from the first."

"Yes, Dr. Claudius, you understand that very well;" and Margaret turned
towards him as she spoke.

"The Doctor understands many things," said Barker in parenthesis.

"You have not yet reported the progress of the crusade," continued the
Countess, "I must know all about it at once."

"I have been plotting and planning in the spirit, while my body has been
frequenting the frivolities of this over-masculine world," answered the
Doctor. At this point Miss Skeat attacked Mr. Barker about the North
American Indians, and the conversation paired off, as it will under such
circumstances.

Claudius was in good spirits and talked wittily, half in jest, one would
have thought, but really in earnest, about what was uppermost in his
mind, and what he intended should be uppermost in the world. It was a
singular conversation, in the course of which he sometimes spoke very
seriously; but the Countess did not allow herself the luxury of being
serious, though it was an effort to her to laugh at the enthusiasm of
his language, for he had a strong vitality, and something of the gift
which carries people away. But Margaret had an impression that Claudius
was making love, and had chosen this attractive ground upon which to
open his campaign. She could not wholly believe him different from other
men--at least she would not believe so soon--and her instinct told her
that the fair-haired student admired her greatly.

Claudius, for his part, wondered at himself, when he found a moment to
reflect on what he had been saying. He tried to remember whether any of
these thoughts had been formulated in his mind a month ago. He was,
indeed, conscious that his high reverence for women in the abstract had
been growing in him for years, but he had had no idea how strong his
belief had grown in this reverence as an element in social affairs.
Doubtless the Doctor had often questioned why it was that women had so
little weight in the scale, why they did so little of all they might do,
and he had read something of their doings across the ocean. But it had
all been vague, thick, and foggy, whereas now it was all sharp and
clean-edged. He had made the first step out of his dreams in that he
had thought its realisation possible, and none but dreamers know how
great and wide that step is. The first faint dawning, "It may be true,
after all," is as different from the remote, listless view of the
shadowy thought inc