The two girls had naturally paired off together, and the subject of their talk was, equally naturally, the new Duke—Alec’s friend, Sybil’s cousin, and Leonie’s chance acquaintance on the _St. Paul_. [Illustration: _"A countrywoman of yours. I wonder if you know her?"_] Sybil, after listening to Leonie’s rather halting description of the fellow passenger whom she had known as "Mr. Hanbury," owned frankly that she had never heard any good of her cousin, but she hastened to add: "He’s given my prejudice a nasty knock, though, in behaving so well to my young man. Gave him a billet as private sec. that enabled Alec to—you know. A man can’t be much of a wrong ’un who’ll stick to old pals when they have no claim on him." Leonie tried not to show surprise at the vernacular. "He seemed very kind and considerate. I don’t think he can ever have done anything dishonorable," she replied. "Nobody ever accused him of that," Sybil assented. "It was only that he was extravagant, and that my grandfather got tired of paying his debts. You see, he wasn’t the next heir, and—well, perhaps they were a little hard on him. I’m quite prepared to like him now." The conversation was interrupted by the entrance of a servant, who announced: "Mrs. Talmage Eglinton." "A fellow countrywoman of yours. I wonder if you know her?" Sybil whispered, as a radiant vision in pale pink under a large "picture" hat sailed in, and was greeted with somewhat frigid politeness by Mrs. Sadgrove. "No; I am not acquainted with either the name or the lady," Leonie replied, struck with a strange antipathy to the bold eyes that seemed to be mastering every detail in the room, herself included. Indeed, Mrs. Talmage Eglinton stared so markedly both at Leonie and her mother that Mrs. Sadgrove thought they must have met, and promptly introduced them as American friends staying in the house. The introduction was not a success, for the Shermans knew everyone worth knowing in American society, and the fact that they had never so much as heard of Mrs. Talmage Eglinton argued her outside the pale. The elegant vision received her snubbing with cool unconcern, and after a few generalities turned again to her hostess and engaged in the trifling chatter of a "duty" call, making one or two unsuccessful attempts to include Sybil, to whom she had not been introduced, in the conversation. "That woman is a brute," Sybil said to Leonie under her breath. "I’ll tell you about her when she’s gone." The door opened, and there entered an iron-gray man of sixty, whose coming might almost have been the cause of expediting the departure of Mrs. Talmage Eglinton, so quickly did she rise and begin her good-byes.