r.

"Your brother has gone?" she asked Sydney, between the courses.

He nodded.

"Yes. David left this afternoon. I do not think that he has quite got
over his surprise at finding you established here."

She laughed.

"After all, why should he be surprised?" she remarked. "Of course, one
lives differently in Paris, but then--Paris is Paris. I think that a
boarding-house is the very best place for a woman who wants to develop
her sense of humour. Only I wish that it did not remind one so much of
a second-hand clothes shop."

Sydney looked at her doubtfully.

"Now I suppose Brendon understands exactly what you mean," he
remarked. "He looks as though he did, at any rate. I don't! Please
enlighten me."

She laughed gaily--and she had a way when she laughed of throwing back
her head and showing her beautiful white teeth, so that mirth from her
was a thing very much to be desired.

"Look round the table," she said. "Aren't we all just odds and ends of
humanity--the left-overs, you know. There is something inconglomerate
about us. We are amiable to one another, but we don't mix. We can't."

"You and I and Brendon get on all right, don't we?" Sydney objected.

"But that's quite different," replied Anna. "You are neither of you in
the least like the ordinary boarding-house young man. You don't wear a
dinner coat with a flower in your button-hole, or last night's shirt,
or very glossy boots, nor do you haunt the drawing-room in the
evening, or play at being musical. Besides----"

She stopped short. She herself, and one other there, recognized the
interposition of something akin to tragedy. A thickly-set, sandy young
man, with an unwholesome complexion and grease-smooth hair, had
entered the room. He wore a black tail coat buttoned tightly over his
chest, and a large diamond pin sparkled in a white satin tie which had
seen better days. He bowed awkwardly to Mrs. White, who held out her
hand and beamed a welcome upon him.

"Now isn't this nice!" that lady exclaimed. "I'm sure we're all
delighted to see you again, Mr. Hill. I do like to see old friends
back here. If there's any one here whom you have not met I will make
you acquainted with them after dinner. Will you take your old place by
Miss Ellicot."

Miss Ellicot swept aside her skirts from the vacant chair and welcomed
the newcomer with one of her most engaging smiles.

"We were afraid that you had deserted us for good, Mr. Hill," she said
graciously. "I su