and hear enough to take her out of herself. Her
own personality was too distinct, however, for her to remain for long
an onlooker merely. That mesmeric quality in her which, whether it
fascinates or displeases, attracts or repels, marks a distinct
personality which is not to be overlooked, made people ask at once who
she was, in the hope that her acquaintance might be worth
cultivating. For there was a certain air of distinction about her
which made her look like a person with some sort of prestige, whom it
might be useful to know--don't you know.

One afternoon soon after Beth's arrival, Mrs. Kilroy being at home to
visitors, and the rooms already pretty full, Beth noticed among the
callers an old-looking young man whose face seemed familiar to her. He
wore a pointed beard upon his chin, and a small moustache cut away
from his upper lip, and waxed and turned up at the ends. His face was
thin and narrow, his forehead high and bald; what hair he had grew in
a fringe at the back of his head, and was curly, and of a nondescript
brown colour. Had he worn the dress of the Elizabethan period, he
might have passed for a bad attempt to look like Shakespeare; and Beth
thought that that perhaps might be the resemblance which puzzled her.
While she was looking at him a lady was announced, a most
demure-looking little person in a grey costume, and a small,
close-fitting princess bonnet, tied under her chin, and trimmed with a
big Alsatian bow in front. She entered smiling slightly, and she
continued to smile, as if she had set the smile on her lips as she put
the bonnet on her head, to complete her costume. After she had shaken
hands with Angelica, she looked round as if in search of some one
else, and seemed satisfied when she discovered the old-looking young
man of Shakesperian aspect. He was watching her, and their eyes met
with a momentary significance, but they took no further notice of each
other. Most people would have perceived no more in the glance than
showed on the surface:--a lady and gentleman who looked at each other
and then looked away, like indifferent acquaintances or casual
strangers; but Beth's infallible intuition revealed to her an
elaborate precaution in this seeming unconcern. It was clear to her
that the two had expected to meet each other there, and their apparent
insensibility to each other's presence was a pose, which, however,
betrayed to her the intimacy it was affected to conceal. She hated
herself