her less definitely moulded than she had imagined.

She rose impatiently and bathed her eyes before ringing for the maid to
lace her for dinner--it was long past tea-time. "Perhaps I had better
marry Lord Hexam and have ten children," she thought. "That sort of
existence has kept more women up to the correct standard than anything
else except poverty."

XIII

"And is this really your first big party?" asked Hexam, wonderingly.

"The first! The first! And I am twenty-five! Just think of it! Of course
I have been to students' balls, and little parties in Rosewater. But a
function--never before."

"This is hardly a function--parties even in the big political
country-houses are more or less informal."

"Informal! The jewels fairly blind my provincial eyes. And this is a
real castle!"

"Oh yes, it is a castle," he said, laughing outright. "I suppose you
have read up its record?" he added, teasingly. "You industrious and
curious Americans know a lot more about us than we know about
ourselves."

"Of course I know the history of this castle. I haven't the least doubt
you know every word of it yourself. I have already learned that the
English are not nearly so vacant-minded as, in their curious pride, they
would have one believe."

She threw back her head, half-closing her eyes in the ecstasy of her new
experience. The dancing was in the picture-gallery, an immense room, in
which there were many dark paintings of the old Italian and Spanish
schools, besides the presentments of innumerable Arcots by the usual
popular masters of the Dutch and English. The ceiling was of stone and
vaulted, but set thick with electric lights, blazing down from their
great height like the crystal stars of the tropics. It had seemed to
Isabel that after entering the castle she had walked for ten minutes
before reaching this room, where as brilliant a company was disporting
itself as she was likely to look upon in England. The Duke of Arcot was
an energetic Conservative and a member of the present cabinet, but his
social attentions were ever directed to the prominent and interesting of
whatever party or creed. As he found a particular zest in being
surrounded by smart, bright and pretty women, the parties at the castle,
and at Arcot House in London, were seldom surpassed in either brilliancy
or interest. And as his rent-roll was abnormal, there was no sign of
dilapidation within the gray walls and towers of the ancient castle, but