, and the better manners of another diplomat, and the lack of
discrimination betrayed by our ambassador to a certain great Power
in choosing people for presentation at court, and the latest unhappy
British-American marriage, and the hopelessness of the French as decent
husbands, and the recent accident to the Claymores' big yacht, and the
tendency of well-born young men toward politics, and the anything but
distinguished person of Lord Alderdene, which was, however, vastly
superior to the demeanour and person of others of his rank recently
imported, and the beauty of Miss Caithness, and the chance that Captain
Voucher had if Leila Mortimer would let him alone, and the absurdity
of the Page twins, and the furtive coarseness of Leroy Mortimer and his
general badness, and the sadness of Leila Mortimer's lot when she had
always been in love with other people,--and a little scandalous surmise
concerning Tom O'Hara, and the new house on Seventy-ninth Street
building for Mrs. Vendenning, and that charming widow's success at last
year's horse show--and whether the fashion of the function was reviving,
and whether Beverly Plank had completely broken into the social sets
he had besieged so long, or whether a few of the hunting and shooting
people merely permitted him to drive pheasants for them, and why
Katharyn Tassel made eyes at him, having sufficient money of her own to
die unwed, and--and--and then, at last, as the big motor car swung in a
circle at Wenniston Cross-Roads, and poked its brass and lacquer
muzzle toward Shotover, the talk swung back to Siward once more--having
travelled half the world over to find him.

"He is the sweetest fellow with his mother," sighed Grace; "and that
counts heavily with me. But there's trouble ahead for her--sorrow and
trouble enough for them both, if he is a true Siward."

"Heredity again!" said Sylvia impatiently. "Isn't he man enough to win
out? I'll bet you he settles down, marries, and--"

"Marries? Not he! How many girls do you suppose have believed that--were
justified in believing he meant anything by his attractive manner and
nice ways of telling you how much he liked you? He had a desperate
affair with Mrs. Mortimer--innocent enough I fancy. He's had a dozen
within three years; and in a week Rena Bonnesdel has come to making eyes
at him, and Eileen gives him no end of chances which he doesn't see. As
for Marion Page, the girl had been on the edge of loving him for years!
You lau