sed
great interest and curiosity about your theory and your experiments. I
told him I knew you. You may guess if I described you as less clever in
your practice than you are in your writings; and, in short, he came
with me to L----, partly to see our flourishing town, principally on my
promise to introduce him to you. My mother, you know, has what she calls
a dejeuner tomorrow,--dejeuner and dance. You will be there?"

"Thank you for reminding me of her invitation. I will avail myself of
it if I can. Your new friend will be present? Who and what is he,--a
medical student?"

"No, a mere gentleman at ease, but seems to have a good deal of general
information. Very young, apparently very rich, wonderfully good-looking.
I am sure you will like him; everybody must."

"It is quite enough to prepare me to like him that he is a friend of
yours." And so we shook hands and parted.

(1) Mrs. Poyntz here makes a mistake in law which, though very evident,
her listeners do not seem to have noticed. Her mistake will be referred
to later.

CHAPTER XXIII.

It was late in the afternoon of the following day before I was able to
join the party assembled at the merchant's house; it was a villa about
two miles out of the town, pleasantly situated amidst flower-gardens
celebrated in the neighbourhood for their beauty. The breakfast had been
long over; the company was scattered over the lawn,--some formed into
a dance on the smooth lawn; some seated under shady awnings; others
gliding amidst parterres, in which all the glow of colour took a glory
yet more vivid under the flush of a brilliant sunshine; and the ripple
of a soft western breeze. Music, loud and lively, mingled with the
laughter of happy children, who formed much the larger number of the
party.

Standing at the entrance of an arched trellis, that led from the hardier
flowers of the lawn to a rare collection of tropical plants under a
lofty glass dome (connecting, as it were, the familiar vegetation of the
North with that of the remotest East), was a form that instantaneously
caught and fixed my gaze. The entrance of the arcade was covered with
parasite creepers, in prodigal luxuriance, of variegated gorgeous
tints,--scarlet, golden, purple; and the form, an idealized picture of
man's youth fresh from the hand of Nature, stood literally in a frame of
blooms.

Never have I seen human face so radiant as that young man's. There was
in the aspect an indescribable someth