"It's in the air I suppose," she answered, laughing, "and we shall all catch it in turn--I hope it isn't painful! I sometimes think it must be, unless one has it in the mildest form. We'll ask Miss Ross. Jin, dear, Mr. Goldthred wants to know if you've any romance about you. I tell him I don't think you've an atom." "How can you say so!" exclaimed Miss Ross. "Don't you know my especial weakness? Can't anybody see I'm heart all over?" Uncle Joseph looked up from his cutlet, masticating steadily the while, and his grave eyes rested on the dark, meaning face of the lady by his side. Their gaze indicated surprise, incredulity, and the least touch of scorn. She was a beautiful fighter, she had practised so much, and knew exactly when and how to return. Shooting one reproachful glance from her large dark eyes full into his own, under cover of the others' voices she murmured two words,--"Strangers yet!" It was the title of a song she sang to him only the day before in the boudoir; a song into which she put all the wild, tender pathos of her flexible and expressive voice. Its burden had been ringing in his ears half an hour ago, while he dressed for dinner. The round, you see, was a short one; but Uncle Joseph caught it heavily and went down! To borrow the language of the prize-ring--"First blood for Miss Ross." He came up smiling nevertheless, and finished his glass of champagne. "I wish you were a little plainer, Miss Ross. I'm not paying you a compliment, or I should say you could easily afford to be a great deal plainer than you are. I mean what I say." "And I mean what I say too--sometimes," she whispered, drooping her thick black eye-lashes. "I don't think I should like to be thought so very plain by _you_." Uncle Joseph went down again, having received, I fancy, no less punishment in this round than the last. Meanwhile young Goldthred, fortified by refreshment, and further stimulated by the interest Mrs. Lascelles either felt or affected, embarked on a touching recital of his pursuits, belongings, and general private history. He described in turn, and with strict attention to details, his schooner, his tax-cart, and his poodle; enlarging on the trim and rigging of the first, the varnish of the second, the elaborate shaving of the third--and, indeed, almost soared into eloquence about his dog. "It shows he has a good heart," thought the listener; "but none the less must he take his punishment like the rest!" With a little more champagne he glided, by an easy transition, into his possessions, his expectations, his prospects in general; why he had done well in "Spanish," what a mess he had made of "Peruvians," the advantage of early information about American politics, and how nearly he had missed a great uncle's munificent bequest by exposing his ignorance of the French _Credit Mobilier_. He was not quite a fool, however, and stopped himself with a laugh.