osition to me?" Ideala exclaimed. "It is
the girl herself I think of. Besides, I daresay she doesn't even know
what her position is!"

"That is what Sir George says, and he knows her well," Mrs. Kilroy
interposed.

"But I never suspected that she was in the least interesting," Mrs.
Carne protested; "and I'm sure she doesn't look attractive--such an
expression!"

"You are to blame for that, all of you," Ideala rejoined, with
something in her gentle way of speaking which had the effect of
strength and vehemence. "I know how it has been. She is sensitive, and
you have made her feel there is something wrong. You have treated her
so that she expects no kindness from you, and so, from diffidence and
restraint of tenderness, her face has set hard into coldness. But that
is only a mask. How you treat each other, you women! And you are as
wanting in discernment, too, as you are in kindness and sympathy. She
has had to put on that mask of coldness to hide what you make her
suffer, and it will take long loving to melt it now, and make her look
human again. You misinterpret her silence too. How can you expect her
to be interesting if you take no interest in her? But look at her
eyes? Any one with the least kindly discernment might have seen the
love and living interest there! If she had been in a good position,
everybody would have found her as singularly interesting as she,
without caring a rap for our position, has found us. She sees through
us all with those eyes of hers--ay, and beyond! She sees what we have
never seen, and never shall in this incarnation; hers are the vision
and the dream that are denied to us. Were she to come forward as a
leader to-morrow, I would follow her humbly and do as she told me....
I read some of her writings the other day, but I thought they were the
work of a mature woman. Had I known she was such a child I should have
wondered!"

"Dear me! does she really write?" said Mrs. Carne. "Well, you surprise
me! I should never have dreamt that she had anything in her!"

"You make me feel ashamed of myself, Ideala," said Mrs. Kilroy with
contrition. "I ought to have known. But I could think of nothing, see
nothing in her but that horrible business. I shall certainly do my
best now, however, when we return from town, to cultivate her
acquaintance, if she will let me."

"Let you!" Mrs. Carne ejaculated with her insinuating smile. "I should
think she would be flattered."

"I am not so sure of that,"