There was one exception to the general air of complete absorption and satisfaction, and this was a queer, oval cynical face, half in the light of the waning day, and half in the shadow of the curtains. It belonged to a young man, who leaned half forward in a rigid, high-backed chair, and alternately glanced curiously from face to face in the audience, and then turned completely about and looked out across the bare tree-tops of the Common. A look of weariness, and even of contempt, crept about his eyes and mouth, as certain high-flown phrases reached his ears. Here is a bit of rapid rhetoric that evoked the applause of the company, and made him only curl his lip. “The dominion of beauty obtains forever in the human heart, and so long as this is so, no class nor humanity at large can be utterly bad; for the discernment of beauty involves the recognition of moral feeling. All permanent beauty is essentially moral and is sure of ready acceptance, especially among women, in whom the religious instinct is strongest. Modern life can never annihilate this innate and instinctive perception of intellectual nobility and pure beauty. Nay, since the form is the body of the soul, the finest type of pure physical beauty will always rightly command our admiration. It breaks through all creeds and castes, and holds the race in unity of feeling and thought.” The lecture closed in a culminating clapping of hands, and the guests all moved forward to congratulate the lecturer and the patron. The young man turned and studied the different groups with an amused smile. A lady, who had been watching the young man’s mocking comment on the scene in the changing expression of his eyes and pursed lips, suddenly arose from a divan in the angle of the room, and crossed over to where he sat in the afternoon twilight. She stopped him from arising with a gesture, and sank down into a seat beside him. “You do not seem particularly pleased with Mr. Blanco Winterbourne’s lecture?” [Illustration] “Well, it doesn’t interest me, because you see I come into contact with life as it really is. I have heard all this cant about the beauty of purity and character before so many times, but when I see beauty of character in life I find it always taken advantage of. And as for the dignity of physical beauty, I need scarcely tell one of your sex the difference between a beauty in rags and a beauty in silks.” “Oh, but I protest, that although the world is gross, and the half of us are mere Mammon worshippers, there is an instinct of delight, and irresistible attraction for us, especially for we women, in sheer beauty without any trappings of finery.” “Ah, indeed; that sounds like the magnanimity of humanity, universally asserted by popular moralists. But your sex is really the least amenable, as I could easily prove to you.” “Then prove it.” “I will, if you can put on your hat and coat and come at once.” “Well, I’m in a blaze of curiosity for the adventure.”