28 A 2Iental Struggle.
every gesture as though he had never before seen a pretty
girl, or heard a soft, natural laugh."
•'He is hand.some," says Patricia serenely. " He is like
that Greek—what d'ye call it ?—we saw in Florence. His
f eatui'es could hardly be improved upon. I saw tluct, at all
events."
" He is good-looking."
" Oh, far, far more than that ! Don't be so grudging
with your praise. And he is as rich as Croesus, Sandie
tells me."
" A good thing for the young woman who gets him,"
says ]Miss Heriot, faintly smiling, and speaking as she
might of the upper-housemaid's lover, did she chance to
have one.
" I have come to a conclusion," exclaims Patricia sud¬
denly, after a swift glance at her sister's contemptuous face,
" and that is to make the best of Felix Brown whilst he
is in our house. I sha'n't even content myself with being
polite to him : I shall be distinctly frienelly. So take
warning, all ye who hear."
" Don't overdo it," suggests ]\Iiss Heriot carelessly.
" Do you know," says the younger girl, drawing a little
closer to her, and taking her hand affectionately in her
own, " that once or twice during dinner it struck me tli.at
you were rather underdoing iti You looked so pale, so
altogether bored, that------"
"What it is to have an ingenuous countenance! I
looked—may I whisper it to you ?—precisely as I feU."
"A pity!" says Patricia. "After all,\a light nature
such as mine has its compensations. Beauty in any form
touches me, and the actual present is all things while it!
lasts. A man with eyes like his could never bore me.
And, besides, there is always something superlatively in¬
teresting about a millionaire."
" Not when the millionaire owns to cotton."
"Why not? Can there be a cleaner thing? And
money is money, however obtained. I am a thoroughly
unbiassed person, I thank my stars, and a warm admirer
of honest industry."
"Y'"ou should marry your Apollo," says Miss Heriot,
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