had barely acknowledged these
ancestors before. A slight meed of resignation descended upon him. He
smiled down upon Isabel, who was frowning at the sun and sighing for
her forgotten veil; she had a tender regard for her complexion. Gwynne
thought her very pretty in her smart crash suit and sailor hat, not
nearly so severe and fateful in appearance as when she had adjusted
herself to the formalities of Capheaton; although he remembered that he
had heard much discussion of her beauty and had not been unappreciative
himself. But he liked her far better here in California. Her eyes were
more alert, her voice was less monotonous; and those little black moles
looked particularly fascinating on the ivory white of her skin, fairly
luminous in the sunlight. He fancied they would drift into matrimony;
and that she appeared to be as indifferent and passionless as she was
handsome and clever but the better suited his present mood. His love for
Mrs. Kaye had died a sudden and violent death, but it had left him
callous, somewhat contemptuous of the charms of woman. He doubted if his
heart would ever beat high in his breast again, but in the course of
events he should need a partner, and Isabel seemed to him fashioned to
be the helpmate of a busy and ambitious statesman.

But all he said was: "You have a little freckle on your nose. I saw it
come."

Isabel shrugged her shoulders and sniffed. He lost interest in her for
the moment, for he distrusted a woman without vanity. He knew girls too
little to suspect that the most business-like were often smitten with a
desire to pose; and were as likely to forget the pose of to-day in the
naturalness of to-morrow. Secretly, Isabel was grievously afflicted at
the thought of the freckle, and did not speak for some time, recalling
the antidotes of her early girlhood, when she and Anabel Leslie
experimented in secret with various beauty recipes cut from the
newspapers. She smiled as she recalled that Anabel, who had pretty
golden hair, had washed it with lye to acquire a reddish tinge, and been
forced to retire for a month; and a semi-tragic experience of her
own--smothered from crown to toe in a blanket taking a hot-air bath for
the benefit of her complexion, the spirit lamp, in a wash-basin under
the chair, exploded, and there was one interminable moment of panic, and
several days of discomfort. She quite forgot her companion in these
lighter reminiscences of a period that seemed far more than