pside down, as it
were, this extraordinary dinner must go on. There was only one fact
for which to rejoice, a trivial one: he had been placed so that he
could look directly into that palm-decked alcove and upon this
convict, Number 526.

Convict! Impossible. The fine head was not debased by the
close-cropped hair, and held itself erect as one upon which no shadow
of guilt or disgrace had ever rested. The face was noble, despite its
lines and the prison pallor; and though hard labor had bowed the once
stalwart shoulders, they neither slouched nor shrunk together as did
those of the other poor men in that group.

"Adrian! Remember where you are."

Even the bouillon choked him and the fish was as ashes in his mouth.
Courses came on and were removed, and he tasted each mechanically,
prodded to this duty by his mother's active elbow. Her tact and
volubility covered his silence, though there was nobody at that table,
save herself, who did not mentally set the lad down as an ignorant,
ill-bred person, oddly unlike the others of his family. Handsome? Oh!
yes. His appearance was quite correct and even noticeable, but if a
man were too stupid to open his mouth, save to put food into it, his
place at a social function were better filled by a plainer and more
agreeable person.

But all things end, as even that intolerable dinner finally did, and
Adrian was free to rise and in some quieter place try to rearrange
his disordered ideas. But he noticed that Kate signaled her mother
to lead the guests from the room while she, herself, remained to
exchange a few words with her chief musician. Adrian, also, lingered,
unreproved, with an intensity of interest which fully redeemed his
face from that dulness which his sister had previously assigned to it.
She even smiled upon him, reassuringly:

"You'll get used to society after a bit, brother. You've avoided it so
much and lived so among those artists that you're somewhat awkward
yet. But you'll do in time, you'll do very well. I mean to make it a
point that you shall attend all my little functions."

But Adrian resolved that he would never grace, or disgrace, another in
this place, though he answered nothing. Then the lady turned to Number
526, and the boy's eyes fixed themselves upon that worn face, seeking
resemblances, trying to comprehend that this unhappy fellow was the
father of his sunny Margot.

Kate was speaking now with an accent intended to be kind, even
commendatory, b