Cora, the younger girl, was much shorter, and was a dainty, pale girl of twenty-five, who dressed with studied simplicity, and sang with great charm and sweetness. Indeed, her voice was one of the family assets, and being well trained, had been one of the most valuable aids in the family rise to the enviable position they already occupied in English society. The mother was a dry, quiet American woman, very shy and watchful, as if not quite sure of herself among her motley brood. The rest of the family consisted of two old-young men, whose age seemed to be greater than would have been expected in the brothers of the girls, but who were supposed to be sons by a former wife of the head of the family, Mr. Van Santen, who was shortly expected from America. Neither was like the sisters; the one being withered and bent, with long teeth and a curious hard smile, while the younger of the two was a tall, rather good-looking man with a little fair mustache which he appeared to have only recently grown, a deep voice and a genial and almost homely manner. The group was an interesting one, yet there was something about this household which Gerard did not like--a strange, unwholesome atmosphere. The afternoon was not far advanced when two parties were formed for bridge-playing, and a third for poker. Gerard did not play, but he kept his eyes open while the play went on, and listened, entranced, when Cora sang for the guests. Her beautiful voice, indeed distracted some of the card-players, although they were in two of the suite of drawing-rooms opening on the terrace, and she was in the third. Gerard thought he had never heard any voice so sweet as that of this pale girl with the washed-out blue eyes, and the soft, colorless hair brushed straight back in a high full roll from her forehead. As he stood at the piano, while her mother played her accompaniments, he thought, looking at her slender figure, with her hands clasped behind her and her plain white muslin dress falling in full folds round her, without any other ornament than a wide white satin sash, that she made a most charming picture against the background of old tapestry which was one of the attractions of the music-room. He was still listening enraptured to her singing of an old ballad which he had never admired before, when Arthur Aldington and another young fellow who had been playing cards all the afternoon came to join him on the terrace. “I’m cleaned out,” said Arthur. “This singing is beautiful but it doesn’t go well with card-playing. I’m not the only man who has quite lost his head between the two. Card-playing for high stakes and lovely music don’t go well together.” Gerard listened with attention. The very same idea had entered his own head some time ago, and he wondered how any of the men could keep their attention sufficiently fixed on the cards to play either poker or bridge within hearing of Miss Cora Van Santen. “That’s just what I should have thought,” said he.