"Eet ees _très romanesque_," declared the Count, "but eet weel to be _triste_. Weell she truthfully ride de cow?" Politely veiled laughter greeted this sally, except from Dr. Wilson, who burst into an open guffaw. "She'll be worth seeing if she does!" he ejaculated. Mrs. Frostwinch bent toward Alice with undulating neck. "You are romantic, of course, Alice," she remarked, "and you look at it like a girl. It's very charming to be above matter-of-fact considerations; but when the edge is worn off--" She sighed, and shook her head as if she were deeply versed in all the misfortunes resulting from an impecunious match; her manner being, of course, the more effective from the fact that everybody knew that she had never been able to spend her income. "But what is life for?" Alice said with heightened color. "If people are happy together, I don't believe that other things matter so much." "For my part," Mrs. Wilson declared, "I think it will be stunning! I wish I were going out to live on a ranch myself, and ride a cow, as the Count says. Chauncy, why don't we buy a ranch? Think how I'd look on cow-back!" She gave the signal to rise, and the ladies departed to the drawing-room, where they talked of many things and of nothing until the gentlemen appeared. Mr. Langdon placed himself so that he faced Mrs. Neligage across the little circle in which the company chanced to arrange itself. "We've been talking of adventures," he said, "and Mr. Frostwinch says that nobody has any nowadays." "I only said that they were uncommon," corrected Mr. Frostwinch. "Of course men do have them now and then, but not very often." "Men! Yes, they have them," Mrs. Wilson declared; "but there's no chance nowadays for us poor women. We never get within sight of anything out of the common." "You're enough out of the common to do without it, Elsie," laughed her husband. "Madame Weelson ees an adventure eetself," the Count put in gallantly. Mr. Langdon raised his head deliberately, and looked over to Mrs. Neligage. "You could tell them differently, Mrs. Neligage," he said. "Your experience at Monte Carlo, now; that was far enough out of the common." Her color went suddenly, but she met his eyes firmly enough. "My adventures?" she returned. "I never had an adventure. I'm too commonplace a person for that." "You don't do yourself justice," Langdon rejoined. "You haven't any idea how picturesque you were that night."