gain by her
treatment; and presently she proposed that they should go to the
further room and see 'how the young people were getting on,' which
Mark received with an immense relief, and followed her through the
_portiere_ to the inner room, in which, as will be seen, an unexpected
stroke of good fortune was to befall him.

They found the young people, with a married sister of Mrs.
Featherstone, sitting round a small table on which was a heap of
_cartes-de-visite_, as they used to be called for no very obvious
reason.

Gilda Featherstone, a lively brunette, with the manner of a young lady
accustomed to her own way, looked up from the table to welcome Mark.
'You've caught us all at a very frivolous game, Mr. Ashburn. I hope
you won't be shocked. We've all had our feelings outraged at least
once, so we're going to stop now, while we're still on speaking
terms.'

'But what is it?' said Mrs. Featherstone. 'It isn't cards, Gilda
dearest, is it?'

'No, mother, not quite; very nearly though. Mr. Caffyn showed it us;
_he_ calls it "photo-nap."'

'Let me explain, Mrs. Featherstone,' said Caffyn, who liked to drop in
at Grosvenor Place occasionally, where he was on terms of some
intimacy. 'I don't know if you're acquainted with the game of "nap"?'
Mrs. Featherstone shook her head, not too amiably, for she had been
growing alarmed of late by a habit her daughter had acquired of
mentioning or quoting this versatile young man whom her husband
persisted so blindly in encouraging. 'Ah!' said Caffyn, unabashed.
'Well, anyway, this is modelled on it. We take out a selection of
photographs, the oldest preferred, shuffle them, and deal round five
photographs to each player, and the ugliest card in each round takes
the trick.'

'I call it a most ill-natured game,' said the aunt, who had seen an
old and unrecognised portrait of herself and the likenesses of several
of her husband's family (a plain one) voted the master-cards.

'Oh, so much _must_ be said for it,' said Caffyn; 'it isn't a game to
be played everywhere, of course; but it gives great scope for the
emotions. Think of the pleasure of gaining a trick with the portrait
of your dearest friend, and then it's such a capital way of
ascertaining your own and others' precise positions in the beauty
scale, and all the plain people acquire quite a new value as
picture-cards.'

He had played his own very cautiously, having found his amusement in
watching the various revelations