leasure, and
obdurately bent upon sparing neither thought nor energy over other
interests; denying their very existence indeed, or good-humouredly
ridiculing them when they were forced upon her. She was a very handsome
girl; I was conscious of that; but, perhaps because I could not
challenge her as I did her brother, her character made no appeal to me.
But Sylvia, on the other hand, with her big, spiritual-looking eyes,
transparently fair skin, and earnest, even rapt expression; Sylvia
stirred my adolescence pretty deeply, and was assiduously draped by me
in that cloth of gold and rose-leaves which every young man is apt to
weave from out of his own inner consciousness for the persons of those
representatives of the opposite sex in whom he detects sympathy and
responsiveness.

Mrs. Wheeler spoke in a kind and motherly way of my bereavement, and the
generosity of youth somehow prevented my appreciation of this being
dulled by the fact that, until reminded, she had forgotten whether I had
lost a father or a mother. Indeed, though not greatly interested in
other folk's affairs, I believe that while the good soul's eyes rested
upon the supposed sufferer, or his story, she was sincerely sorry about
any kind of trouble, from her pug's asthma to the annihilation of a
multitude in warfare or disaster. She had the kindest heart, and no
doubt it was rather her misfortune than her fault that she could not
clearly realize any circumstance or situation which did not impinge in
some way upon her own small circle.

I met Leslie's father for the first time at dinner that evening. One
could hardly have imagined him sparing time for visits to Cambridge. He
was a fine, soldierly-looking man, with no trace of City pallor in his
well-shaven, purple cheeks. Purple is hardly the word. The ground was
crimson, I think, and over that there was spread a delicate tracery, a
sort of netted film, of some kind of blue. The eyes had a glaze over
them, but were bright and searching. The nose was a salient feature,
having about it a strong predatory suggestion. The forehead was low,
surmounted by exquisitely smooth iron-gray hair. Mr. Wheeler was
scrupulously fine in dress, and used a single eye-glass. He gave me
hearty welcome, and I prefer to think that the apparent chilling of his
attitude to me after he had learned of my financial circumstances was
merely the creation of some morbid vein of hyper-sensitiveness in
myself.

At all events, we were