Sybil, too, in her quiet way, was very willing to be amused, and she found in Ronald Surbiton an absolute freshness of ideas that gave her a new sense of pleasure. Her affair with Vancouver had made a deep impression on her mind, and her mother's death soon afterwards had had the effect of withdrawing her entirely from the world. It was no wonder, therefore, that she liked this young Englishman, so different from most of the men she knew best. It was natural, too, that he should want to talk to her, for she was the only young girl present. At last, as Ronald began to feel that intimacy which sometimes grows out of a simple conversation between two sympathetic people, he turned to the subject he had most in mind, if not most in his heart. "You and my cousin are very intimate, Miss Brandon, I believe?" he said. "Yes--I have grown very fond of her in a few weeks." Sybil wondered whether Ronald was going to make confidences. It seemed to her rather early in the acquaintance. "Yes, she told me," said Ronald. "She is very fond of you, too; I went to see her this morning." "I suppose you go every day," said Sybil, smiling. "No--not every day," answered Ronald. "But this morning I was asking her about some of the people here. She seems to know every one." "Yes indeed, she is immensely popular. Whom did she tell you about?" "Oh--Mrs. Wyndham, and Mr. Wyndham, and Mr. Vancouver, and Mr. Harrington. He is immensely clever, she says," added Ronald, with a touch of irony in his voice. "What do you think about him, Miss Brandon?" "I cannot judge very well," said Sybil. "He is a great friend of mine, and I do not care in the least whether my friends are clever or not." "Joe does," said Ronald. "She hates stupid people. She is very clever too, you know, and so I suppose she is right about Harrington." "Oh yes; I was only speaking of myself," answered Sybil. "He is probably the strongest man in this part of the world." "He looks strong," said Ronald, who was a judge of athletes. "I mean in the way of brains," said Sybil. "But he is more than that, for he is so splendidly honest." "But lots of people are honest," said Ronald, who did not want to concede too much to the man he meant to dislike. "Perhaps, but not so much as he is. I do not believe John Harrington ever in his life said anything that could possibly convey a false impression, or ever betrayed a confidence." Sybil looked calmly across the room at John, who was talking earnestly to Sam Wyndham. "But has he no defects at all? What a model of faultlessness!" exclaimed Ronald. "People say he is self-centred, whatever that may mean. He is certainly a very ambitious man, but his ambitions are large, and he makes no secret of them. He will make a great stir in the world some day."