e absolutely
peerless beauty her father had vaunted, he at once decided that she was
lovely enough to grace Hechnahoul, or any other, Castle. Black eyes
and a mass of coal-black hair, an ivory pale skin, small well-chiselled
features, and that distinctively American plumpness of contour--these
marked her face; while as for her figure, it was the envy of her women
friends and the distraction of all mankind who saw her.

"Fortunate Baron!" thought Bunker.

Beside her, though sufficiently in the rear to mark the relative
position of the sexes in the society they adorned, stood Darius P.
Maddison, junior--or "Ri," in the phrase of his relatives and friends--a
broad-shouldered, well-featured young man, with keen eyes, a mouth
compressed with the stern resolve to die richer than Mr. Rockefeller,
and a pair of perfectly ironed trousers.

"I am very delighted to meet you," declared the heiress.

"Very honored to have this pleasure," said the brother.

"While I enjoy both sensations," replied the Count, with his most
agreeable smile.

A little preliminary conversation ensued, in the course of which the two
parties felt an increasing satisfaction in one another's society; while
Bunker had the further pleasure of enjoying a survey of the room in
which they sat. Evidently it was Miss Maddison's peculiar sanctum,
and it revealed at once her taste and her power of gratifying it. The
tapestry that covered two sides of the room could be seen at a glance to
be no mere modern imitation, but a priceless relic of the earlier middle
ages. The other walls were so thickly hung with pictures that one could
scarcely see the pale-green satin beneath; and among these paintings the
Count's educated eye recognized the work of Raphael, Botticelli, Turner,
and Gainsborough among other masters; while beneath the cornice hung a
well-chosen selection from the gems of the modern Anglo-American school.
The chairs and sofa were upholstered in a figured satin of a slightly
richer hue of green, and on several priceless oriental tables lay
displayed in ivory, silver, crystal, and alabaster more articles of
vertu than were to be found in the entire house of an average collector.

"Fortunate Tulliwuddle!" thought Bunker.

They had been conversing on general topics for a few minutes, when Miss
Maddison turned to her brother and said, with a frankness that both
pleased and entertained the Count--

"Ri, dear, don't you think we had better come right stra