choicest Parisian gowns, and pull your hair to
pieces. I couldn't fancy it at all."

Here the door opens to admit the men, the celestial half-hour after
dinner having come to an end. With one consent they all converge towards
the window, where Olga and Hermia are standing with Monica, who had
joined them to bid good-night to little Fay. Miss Fitzgerald, who had
returned to the drawing-room freshly powdered, seeing how the tide runs,
crosses the room too, and mingles with the group in the window.

"How long you have been! We feared you dead and buried," she says to
Kelly, with elephantine playfulness.

"We have, indeed. I thought the other men would never stir. Why did you
not give me the chance of leaving them? The faintest suggestion that
_you_ wanted me would have brought me here _hours_ ago."

"If I had been sure of that, I should have sent you a message; it would
have saved me a lecture," says Olga, flashing a smile at Hermia.

"I should disdain to send a message," says the proud Bella, "I would not
_compel_ any man's presence. 'Come if you will; stay away if you won't,'
is _my_ motto; and I cannot help thinking I am right."

"You are, indeed, quite right. Coercion is of small avail in _some_
cases," says Olga, regarding her with the calm dignity of one who
plainly considers the person addressed of very inferior quality indeed.

"A woman can scarcely be too jealous of her rights nowadays," says Miss
Fitzgerald. "If she has a proper knowledge of her position, she ought to
guard it carefully."

"A fine idea finely expressed!" says Kelly, as though smitten into
reverence by the grandeur of her manner.

"I wonder what is a man's proper position?" says Olga lazily.

"He will always find it at a woman's feet," says Miss Fitzgerald,
grandly, elated by Kelly's apparent subjection.

That young man looks blankly round him. Under tables and chairs and
lounges his eyes penetrate, but without the desired result.

"So sorry I can't see a footstool anywhere!" he says, lifting regretful
eyes to Miss Fitzgerald; "but for that I should be at your feet from
this until you bid me rise."

"Hypocrite!" says Olga in his ear; after which conversation becomes more
general; and presently Miss Fitzgerald goes back to the fire under the
mistaken impression that probably one of the men will follow her there.

The _one_--whoever he is--_doesn't_.

"Do you know," says Mr. Kelly, in a low tone, to the others, "the ugly
girl's awf