“She meant to be kind, I have no doubt,” mumbled Aubrey. “But I don’t think arrangements of that sort ever answer, unless people know all about one another; and, if you have not settled anything, I would strongly advise you to try lodging for a week by yourself first; and then, of course, after that you would know all about everybody, and be able to make arrangements with any lady you liked. I hope you will forgive my interference; I could not help seeing that, as you say, you know nothing at all about touring yet.” Annie had scarcely time to thank him for his advice before he had raised his hat and left her. Aubrey Cooke was a gentleman, and, in spite of her apparent prejudice against him, he felt sympathy with the forlorn little lady. When Annie left the theater that morning, Miss West was coming out at the same time, and for the first time Annie saw her complexion by daylight; and the force of Aubrey Cooke’s advice struck Miss Langton at once, for the pink and white and black of the leading lady’s beauty showed a difference of tastes between them which was more than skin-deep. CHAPTER XIII. Before the company Annie had joined started on a tour, she had heard more tidings to distress her about the Braithwaite family. It was Aubrey Cooke who brought them this time. He was telling her that he had met their late companion, Gerald Gibson, at Mrs. Falconer’s the day before. “Oh! Do you know her too?” “Yes; I have known her much longer than Gibson has. He and I have long arguments about her.” “I can guess which side you take.” “I always take the part of a beautiful woman. And Gibson really does her cruel injustice. She might sit for the portrait of the favorite handsome panther-woman of the lady novelists.” “I expected something more complimentary than that. I don’t call that high praise.” “Don’t you? Well, I don’t know any pretty woman who would not feel flattered at being called a panther; most of them only get as far as to be like cats.” “Now you are absolutely libelous! I know you will go on to say that panthers are as cruel as they are graceful, that they delight in human victims, and you might add, if you dared, that the pursuit of them was an exciting sport. And then you will ask if the parallel does not hold good.” “Indeed, I shall say nothing so commonplace, Miss Langton. I always maintain, to begin with, that beautiful women are not cruel. It is not their fault if we crowd round them in such numbers that they mix us up a little, and hurt our feelings by forgetting us. I have a great advantage over most of my rivals in one respect--my appearance. I heard a lady call me the other day the nice, quiet young man who looks so stupid. She was asking a man named Colonel Richardson who I was.” “Colonel Richardson?” “Yes. He is a gentleman whom I always meet at Mrs. Falconer’s, a very old friend of the family, I believe.”