lp it. This intense appreciation of a
novel or dramatic encounter with an eligible Philistine was her great
weakness, and she made no secret of it even with her lover, which was
unwise if frank.

She gave her fan a wicked flirt, and her eyes flashed as she did it.

"A mine of valuable information lies unexplored before me," she said.
"I must make minute inquiries concerning the habits and peculiarities of
the people of the East. I shall take the lion in tow, and Lady Augusta's
happiness will be complete."

Griffith turned pale--his conquering demon was jealousy.

"Look here, Dolly," he began.

But Dolly settled herself in her seat again, and waved her hand with an
air of extreme satisfaction. She did not mean to make him miserable,
and would have been filled with remorse if she had quite understood the
extent of the suffering she imposed upon him sometimes merely through
her spirit, and the daring onslaughts she made upon people for whom she
cared little or nothing. She understood his numerous other peculiarities
pretty thoroughly, but she did not understand his jealousy, for the
simple reason that she had never been jealous in her life.

"Tell the cabman to drive on," she said, with a flourish. "There is balm
to be found even in Bilberry."

And when the man drove on she composed herself comfortably in a corner
of the vehicle, in perfect unconsciousness of the fact that she had left
a thorn behind, rankling in the bosom of the poor fellow who watched her
from the pavement.

She was rather late, she found, on reaching her destination. The parlors
were full, and the more enterprising of the guests were beginning to
group themselves in twos and threes, and make spasmodic efforts at
conversation. But conversation at a Bilberry assemblage was rarely a
success,--it was so evident that to converse was a point of etiquette,
and it was so patent that conversation was expected from everybody,
whether they had anything to say or not.

Inoffensive individuals of retiring temperament, being introduced to
each other solemnly and with ceremony, felt that to be silent was to be
guilty of a glaring breach of Bilberry decorum, and, casting about in
mental agony for available remarks, found none, and were overwhelmed
with amiable confusion. Lady Augusta herself, in copper-colored silk of
the most unbending quality and make, was not conducive to cheerfulness.
Yet Dolly's first thought on catching sight of her this evening was a