is a man of great dignity, inspiring confidence in every one."

"Where did you meet him?"

"In the hospitals," said her father quickly. "But I will introduce him
to you to-night. Don't lose your head when you talk to him."

"Why should I?"

"Because he is a magnificent fellow; and I wish my daughter to hold her
own before a man whom I admire so heartily."

"Why, this is the first time you have ever given me worldly advice," she
laughed.

"Only a friendly hint," he answered, rising and putting his book in its
place with the precision of a spinster.

Chapter II

"This is what I call a worldly paradise!" A girl with a face like dear
Lady Disdain's sank into a divan placed near the conservatory; her voice
chimed in prettily with the music of a spraying fountain and the soft
strains of remote stringed instruments.

"Is it a frivolous conceit?" she continued, laughing up to the man who
stood beside her; "or do the soft light of many candles, faint music,
radiant women, and courtly men, satisfy your predilections also that
such a place is as near heaven as this wicked world approaches?"

"You forget; paradise was occupied by but two. To my notion, nothing
can be farther removed from Elysium than a modern drawing-room full of
guests."

"And leaving out the guests?"

"They say imagination can make a paradise of a desert, given the
necessary contingencies."

"A solitude of two who love? Dr. Kemp, methinks you are a romantic."

"You supplied the romance, Miss Gwynne. My knowledge is of the hard,
matter-of-fact sort."

"Such as bones, I suppose. Still you seem to be interested in the
soft-looking piece of humanity over by that cabinet."

"Yes; his expression is reminiscent of a boy's definition of a
vacuum,--a large space with nothing in it. Who is he?"

"And I thought you not unknown! He is the husband of a brilliant woman,
Mrs. Ames, who has written a novel."

"Clever?"

"Decidedly so; it stands the test of being intoxicating and leaving a
bad taste in the mouth,--like dry champagne."

"Which is not made for women."

"You mean school-girls. There she is,--that wisp of a creature listening
so eagerly to that elegant youth of the terrier breed. No wonder he
interests her; he is as full of information in piquant personal history
as a family lawyer, and his knowledge is as much public property as a
social city directory."

"You have studied him to advantage. Are you sure you have not stolen a
leaf fr