hea and her steady, sallow satellite, became the centre of a watchful
circle; watchful and kindly. Even to others her charms became more
apparent, as, indeed, they were more actual. To be loved and to live in
the presence of the adorer is the most beautifying of circumstances.
Althea bloomed under it. Her eyes became larger, sweeter, sadder; her
lips softer; the mild fever of her indecision and of her sense of power
burned dimly in her cheeks. As the centre of watchfulness she gained the
grace of self-confidence.

Aunt Julia, observant and shrewd, smiled with half-ironic satisfaction.
She had felt sure that Althea must come to this, and 'this,' she
considered as on the whole fortunate for Althea. Anything, Aunt Julia
thought, was better than to become a wandering old maid, and she had,
moreover, the highest respect for Franklin Winslow Kane. As a suitor for
one of her own girls he would, of course, have been impossible; but her
girls she placed in a different category from Althea; they had the
rights of youth, charm, and beauty.

The girls, for their part, though seeing Franklin as a fair object for
chaff, conceived of him as wholly suitable. Though they chaffed him,
they never did so to his disadvantage, and they were respectful
spectators of his enterprise. They had the nicest sense of loyalty for
serious situations.

And Miss Buckston was of all the most satisfactory in her attitude. Her
contempt for the disillusions and impediments of marriage could not
prevent her from feeling an altogether new regard for a person to whom
marriage was so obviously open; moreover, she thought Mr. Kane highly
interesting. She at once informed Althea that she always found American
men vastly the superior in achievement and energy to the much-vaunted
American woman, and Althea was not displeased. She was amused but
gratified, when Miss Buckston told her what were Franklin's good
qualities, and said that though he had many foolish democratic notions,
he was more worth while talking to than any man she had met for a long
time. She took every opportunity for talking to him about sociology,
science, and international themes, and Althea even became a little irked
by the frequency of these colloquies and tempted sometimes to withdraw
Franklin from them; but the subtle flattery that Miss Buckston's
interest in Franklin offered to herself was too acceptable for her to
yield to such impulses. Yes, Franklin had a right to his air of careful
e