y until well into June--it quite depends upon how
amused I am. I rather love Paris."

And to himself he was thinking--

"How I wish that atrocious woman over there with the paradise plume
would keep her hat out of the way. Ah, that is better! How lovely she
looks to-night! What an exquisite pose of head! And what are those two
damned foreigners saying to her, I wonder. Underbred brute, the
American, Herryman Hoggenwater! What a name! She is laughing--she
evidently finds him amusing. Abominably cattish of the widow not to ask
me. I wonder if she has seen me yet. I want to make her bow to me. Ah!"
For just then magnetism was too strong for Theodora, and, in spite of
her determination, their eyes met.

A thrill, little short of passion, ran through Lord Bracondale as he saw
the wild roses flushing her white cheeks--the exquisite flattery to his
vanity. Yes, she had seen him, and it already meant something to her.

He raised his champagne glass and sipped a sip, while his eyes, more
ardent than they had ever been, sought her face.

And Theodora, for her part, felt a flutter too. She was angry with
herself for blushing, such a school-girlish thing to do, Sarah had
always told her. She hoped he had not noticed it at that
distance--probably not. And what did he mean by drinking her health
like that? He--oh, he was--

"Now, truly, Mrs. Brown, you are cruel," Mr. Herryman Hoggenwater said,
pathetically, interrupting her thoughts. "I tell you I am simply longing
to know if you will come for a drive in my automobile, and you do not
answer, but stare into space."

Theodora turned, and then the young American understood that for all her
gentle looks it would be wiser not to take this tone with her.

He admired her frantically, he was just "crazy" about her, he told Mrs.
McBride later. And so now he exerted himself to please and amuse her
with all the vivacity of his brilliant nation.

Theodora was enjoying herself. Environment and atmosphere affected her
strongly. The bright pink lights, the sense of night and the soft moon
beyond the wide open balcony windows, the scents of flowers, the gayety,
and, above all, the knowledge that Lord Bracondale was there, gazing at
her whenever opportunity offered, with eyes in which she, unlearned as
she was in such things, could read plainly admiration and unrest.

It all went to her head a little, and she became quite animated and full
of repartee and sparkle, so that Josiah Brown cou