“You are right, she does come from Newcastle, but let me tell you that when I introduce you, you will find her quite au fait of all the latest London fads. She makes it her business to be. These illustrated papers do a great deal to prepare the provincial mind for the more startling developments of our civilization. Mrs. Elles has looked on the Medusa head of certain aspects of society through the medium of ‘Black and White,’ and the ‘Ladies’ Field.’” “How you hate her!” said Dr. André. Egidia wore mental sackcloth and ashes for the rest of the evening, conscious that she had for once allowed herself to be drawn to the very verge of the fathomless gulf of feminine spite. * * * * * “Did I look nice? Did I seem too dreadfully provincial?” was what Mrs. Elles said to her hostess when the door had closed on the last guest. Egidia had sunk into a chair, and sat staring at vacancy. Mrs. Elles’s voice recalled her from her reverie. “Not at all--I mean provincial. You and the Doctor seemed to get on? Did he propose to mesmerize you?” “Oh, yes!” Mrs. Elles answered eagerly. “Soon. May he? Here in your flat?” “Certainly!” Egidia replied, feeling now a little apprehension of the consequences. “But you must not believe in him too much. You must not let him get an influence over you!” “I shouldn’t mind. I am sure he would not use his power for harm against me--or any woman!” “Oh, no, he is a good old thing!” Egidia said condescendingly. “And this little social trick of his amuses people, and makes him a personage, and asked out a great deal!” “I believe very much in hypnotism as a serious force in life,” said the other sturdily. “I can’t laugh at it. And I think Dr. André is a most interesting man who could give one a real glimpse into one’s self and into futurity, if he chose, and one turned out to be a good subject.” “And he thinks you a very pretty woman--he told me so.” “Oh--pretty!” said Mrs. Elles, as much as to imply that she did not wish to stand on anything so trivial as good looks in the seër’s good opinion. “At any rate, you enjoyed yourself?” “Enormously! I mean, that I did not want to be a blot on your party, so I screwed myself up, and was gay!” “You mean you were acting a part?” Egidia answered, coldly. “Well, partly,” Mrs. Elles replied; then she added with the pretty smile that leavened so many of her little insincerities, “but I confess--I forgot every now and then, and let myself feel as if nothing had happened, and I was a girl again, beginning life--the life I always wanted, the life I was made for, I think. Oh, don’t you see how hard it all is for me, this course I have to take--that I must take for his sake?”