dered if by any chance Robbie was maintaining his brother in
princely state for the sake of his ability to make other people
uncomfortable. But he realized that the Robbies, in their own view of
it, could have no more need of wit than a battleship has need of
popguns. Oliver's position, when they were about, was rather that of
the man who hardly ever dared to be as clever as he might, because of
the restless jealousy of his friend.

It was a mystery; and it made the elder brother very uncomfortable.
Alice was young and guileless, and a pleasant person to patronize; but
he was a man of the world, and it was his business to protect her. He
had always paid his own way through life, and he was very loath to put
himself under obligations to people like the Wallings, whom he did not
like, and who, he felt instinctively, could not like him.

But of course there was nothing he could do about it. The date for the
great festivity was set; and the Wallings were affable and friendly,
and Alice all a-tremble with excitement. The evening arrived, and with
it came the enemies of the Wallings, dressed in their jewels and fine
raiment. They had been asked because they were too important to be
skipped, and they had come because the Wallings were too powerful to be
ignored. They revenged themselves by consuming many courses of
elaborate and costly viands; and they shook hands with Alice and beamed
upon her, and then discussed her behind her back as if she were a
French doll in a show-case. They decided unanimously that her elder
cousin was a "stick," and that the whole family were interlopers and
shameless adventurers; but it was understood that since the Robbie
Wallings had seen fit to take them up, it would be necessary to invite
them about.

At any rate, that was the way it all seemed to Montague, who had been
brooding. To Alice it was a splendid festivity, to which exquisite
people came to take delight in each other's society. There were
gorgeous costumes and sparkling gems; there was a symphony of perfumes,
intoxicating the senses, and a golden flood of music streaming by;
there were laughing voices and admiring glances, and handsome partners
with whom one might dance through the portals of fairyland.--And then,
next morning, there were accounts in all the newspapers, with
descriptions of one's costume and then some of those present, and even
the complete menus of the supper, to assist in preserving the memories
of the wonderful o