t well to spend his whole time in adoring her
and making her more blessed than had ever yet been a woman upon the
earth. Then her first approach to a mundane feeling had been her
acknowledgment to herself that Isadore Hamel would do as a lover for
Lucy. Isadore Hamel was certainly very handsome,--was possessed of
infinite good gifts; but even he would by no means have come up to
her requirements for her own hero. That hero must have wings tinged
with azure, whereas Hamel had a not much more aetherealised than
ordinary coat and waistcoat. She knew that heroes with azure wings
were not existent save in the imagination, and, as she desired a real
lover for Lucy, Hamel would do. But for herself her imagination was
too valuable then to allow her to put her foot upon earth. Such as
she was, must not Augusta have been very stupid to have thought that
Ayala should become fond of her Mr. Traffick!

Her cousin Tom had come to her, and had been to her as a Newfoundland
dog is when he jumps all over you just when he has come out of a
horsepond. She would have liked Tom had he kept his dog-like gambols
at a proper distance. But when he would cover her with muddy water
he was abominable. But this Augusta had not understood. With Mr.
Traffick there would be no dog-like gambols; and, as he was not harsh
to her, Ayala liked him. She had liked her uncle. Such men were, to
her thinking, more like dogs than lovers. She sang when Mr. Traffick
asked her, and made a picture for him, and went with him to the
Coliseum, and laughed at him about Supply and Demand. She was very
pretty, and perhaps Mr. Traffick did like to look at her.

"I really think you were too free with Mr. Traffick last night,"
Augusta said to her one morning.

"Free! How free?"

"You were--laughing at him."

"Oh, he likes that," said Ayala. "All that time we were up at the top
of St. Peter's I was quizzing him about his speeches. He lets me say
just what I please."

This was wormwood. In the first place there had been a word or two
between the lovers about that going up of St. Peter's, and Augusta
had refused to join them. She had wished Septimus to remain down with
her,--which would have been tantamount to preventing any of the party
from going up; but Septimus had persisted on ascending. Then Augusta
had been left for a long hour alone with her mother. Gertrude had no
doubt gone up, but Gertrude had lagged during the ascent. Ayala had
skipped up the interminable st