despicable company in numbers, since Parliament was still sitting and
the session promised to be rather indefinitely prolonged--crowded its
fine stairways and suites of lofty rooms, resplendent in silks and
satins, jewels and laces, in orders and titles, and manifold personal
distinctions of wealth, or office, or beauty, while strains of music
and scent of flowers pervaded the length and breadth of it, and the
feet of the dancers sped over its shining floors.

It chanced that Honoria St. Quentin found herself, on this occasion, in
a meditative, rather than an active, mood. True, the scene was
remarkably brilliant. But she had witnessed too many parallel scenes to
be very much affected by that. So it pleased her fancy to moralise, to
discriminate--not without a delicate sarcasm--between actualities and
appearances, between the sentiments which might be divined really to
animate many of the guests, and those conventional presentments of
sentiment which the manner and bearing of the said guests indicated.
She assured Lord Shotover she would rather not dance, that she
preferred the attitude of spectator, whereupon that gentleman proposed
to her to take sanctuary in a certain ante-chamber, opening off Lady
Louisa Barking's boudoir, which was cool, dimly lighted, and agreeably
remote from the turmoil of the entertainment now at its height.

The acquaintance of these two persons was, in as far as time and the
number of their meetings went, but slight, and, at first sight, their
tastes and temperaments would seem wide asunder as the poles. But
contrast can form a strong bond of union. And the young man, when his
fancy was engaged, was among those who do not waste time over
preliminaries. If pleased, he bundled, neck and crop, into intimacy.
And Miss St. Quentin, her fearless speech, her amusingly detached
attitude of mind, and her gallant bearing, pleased him mightily from a
certain point of view. He pronounced her to be a "first-rate sort," and
entertained a shrewd suspicion that, as he put it, Ludovic "was after
her." He commended his brother's good taste. He considered she would
make a tip-top sister-in-law. While the young lady, on her part,
accepted his advances in a friendly spirit. His fraternal attitude and
unfailing good-temper diverted her. His rather doubtful reputation
piqued her curiosity. She accepted the general verdict, declaring him
to be good-for-nothing, while she enjoyed the conviction that, rake or
no rake