stress. But she didn't seem to think anything of it. She
said she very often does that, and it is best not to try and waken her.
I must say she seemed much better afterwards. Brighter and more alert.
What a lovely creature she is!" she added enthusiastically. "I suppose
you know you're the most envied person in the hotel at this present
moment?"

He smiled, but his face still looked anxious and disturbed.

"Because I have the privilege of being her friend?" he said. "Well, I
am not going to deny that it _is_ a privilege--a most enviable one."

"I should think," said Mrs Jefferson meaningly, "it is also one that
has its dangers."

The calm grey eyes met her sharp inquisitive glance, but were utterly
unrevealing.

"I will not affect to misunderstand you," he said, "but there are men
who covet danger for its own sake. They may seem foolhardy, but they
are only accountable to themselves for the risks they run."

"Well," said Mrs Jefferson warmly, "I'm only a woman, and yet if it's
possible to fall in love with one of my own sex, I've done it. She's
perfectly charmed me. I can't get her out of my head for a single
moment. It's not only her wonderful beauty, but her mind. As for our
poet," she added, laughing, "he's quite gone. He's done nothing all day
but moon about under the pine trees. Writing sonnets, I guess, and
hoping to catch a glimpse of her. All useless--she's not left the hotel
to-day, and I suppose she'll not favour us to night."

Colonel Estcourt was silent. Conversation was more or less general, but
it sounded vague and unmeaning to him. He heard a voice on his left
holding forth with energy, but he did not heed it until Mrs Jefferson
touched his arm and whispered an entreaty.

"Do listen," she said, "it's Diogenes. Isn't he coming out? I surmise
it's _her_ influence. You remember last night?"

"An atheist," said the dogmatic voice of the individual who had given
that common-sense view of spiritualism the previous evening, "must be a
fool of the most complete type. Because he doubts what _men_ teach of
God, is no reason for doubting the existence of God. I grant that the
Reverend John Smith, with his high-falutin' trappings of Ritualism on
one side, and the Reverend Josiah Stiggins, with his coarse and
commonplace familiarity with the Almighty (whose personality he has the
effrontery to expound as if he were discussing the characteristics of an
ordinary mortal), on the other, are e