. Merritt," said Hal.

"How did you know?" she cried.

"I didn't. Only, he seems, at a glance, different and of a broader gauge
than the others."

"You're a judge of men, at least. As for Esme, I suppose she'll marry
some man much older than herself. Heaven grant he's the right one! For
when she gives, she will give royally, and if the man does not meet her
on her own plane--well, there will be tragedy enough for two!"

"Deep waters," said Hal. The talk had changed to a graver tone.

"Deep and dangerous. Shipwreck for the wrong adventurer. But El Dorado
for the right. Such a golden El Dorado, Hal! The man I want for Esme
Elliot must have in him something of woman for understanding, and
something of genius for guidance, and, I'm afraid, something of the
angel for patience, and he must be, with all this, wholly a man."

"A pretty large order, Lady Jeannette. Well, I've had my warning.
Good-night."

"Perhaps it wasn't so much warning as counsel," she returned, a little
wistfully. "How poor Esme's ears must be burning. There she goes now.
What a picture! Come early to-morrow."

Hal's last impression of the ballroom, as he turned away, was summed up
in one glance from Esme Elliot's lustrous eyes, as they met his across
her partner's shoulder, smiling him a farewell and a remembrance of
their friendly pact.

"Honey-Jinny," said Mrs. Willard's husband, after the last guest had
gone; "I don't understand about young Surtaine. Where did he get it?"

"Get what, dear? One might suppose he was a corrupt politician."

"One might suppose he might be anything crooked or wrong, knowing his
old, black quack of a father. But he seems to be clean stuff all
through. He looks it. He acts it. He carries himself like it. And he
talks it. I had a little confab with him out in the smoking-room, and I
tell you, Jinny-wife, I believe he's a real youngster."

"Well, he had a mother, you know."

"Did he? What about her?"

"She was an old friend of my mother's. Dr. Surtaine eloped with her out
of her father's country place in Midvale. He was an itinerant peddler of
some cure-all then. She was a gently born and bred girl, but a mere
child, unworldly and very romantic, and she was carried away by the
man's personal beauty and magnetism."

"I can't imagine it in a girl of any sort of family."

"Mother has told me that he had a personal force that was almost
hypnotic. There must have been something else to him, too, for they say
that