in women who sought to attract. Yet, as she stood looking
down at him, a faint smile, half humorous, half satirical, playing about
the corners of her shapely mouth, he felt his heart beat faster than
ever it had done in any African jungle. It was the nervous and
emotional side of the man to which she appealed. He felt unlike himself,
undergoing a new phase of development. There was something stirring
within him which he could not understand.

"You haven't any friends," she said softly, "nor any education, but you
are a millionaire! That is quite sufficient. You are a veritable Caesar
with undiscovered worlds before you."

"I wish I knew what you meant," he said, with some hesitation.

She laughed softly.

"Don't you understand," she said, "that you are the fashion? Last year
it was Indian Potentates, the year before it was actors, this year it
is millionaires. You have only to announce yourself and you may take
any place you choose in society. You have arrived at the most auspicious
moment. I can assure you that before many months are past you will know
more people than ever you have spoken to in your life before--men whose
names have been household words to you and nothing else will be calling
you 'old chap' and wanting to sell you horses, and women, who last week
would look at you through lorgnettes as though you were a denizen of
some unknown world, will be lavishing upon you their choicest smiles and
whispering in your ear their 'not at home' afternoon. Oh, it's lucky
I'm able to prepare you a little for it, or you would be taken quite by
storm."

He was unmoved. He looked at her with a grim tightening of the lips.

"I want to ask you this," he said. "What should I be the better for it
all? What use have I for friends who only gather round me because I am
rich? Shouldn't I be better off to have nothing to do with them, to live
my own life, and make my own pleasures?"

She shrugged her shoulders.

"These people," she said, "of whom I have been speaking are masters
of the situation. You can't enjoy money alone! You want to race, hunt,
entertain, shoot, join in the revels of country houses! You must be one
of them or you can enjoy nothing."

Monty's words were ringing back in his ears. After all, pleasures could
be bought--but happiness!

"And you," he said, "you too think that these things you have mentioned
are the things most to be desired in life?"

A certain restraint crept into her manner.

"Yes,"