"Of course, it is unwise. Imagine Lord Baudesert bolting out the truth upon every occasion! And that is just what my uncle does. My aunt thinks him the wisest person in the world, so you see I am the only one in the family who is capable of any diplomacy at all. Now, as I am twenty-five years old----" "So old as that?" said Sir Percy, pretending surprise. "Twenty-six next birthday," gravely responded Lucy, "and I have learned a great deal. One thing is, that constituents never forgive one if they are not shown attention in Washington. I assure you my attentions to Bardstown people in Washington got my uncle his last nomination. I took a grocer’s daughter round with me sight-seeing, and I gave nine teas in one month for Bardstown girls. I didn’t commit the folly of asking for invitations for them. Nobody thanks you for introducing the superfluous girl, and I can’t see why one should expect other people to pay one’s social debts. But I paid all my own debts, and made Uncle Armytage do a lot of things for the Bardstown men who were here, which he said he hadn’t time to do. But I made him find the time. Isn’t that diplomacy?" "Diplomacy and good sense combined," answered Sir Percy. He thought he had never seen so expressive a face as Lucy Armytage’s. Every word she uttered seemed to have a corresponding expression of the eye. Her cheeks were colourless, like the leaves of a white rose, but her lips were scarlet and showed beautiful and regular teeth. A charming English girl always reminded Sir Percy of a beautiful rose in bloom, but this girl was like the star-like jessamine, which grows not in every garden, its white, mysterious flowers hiding in the depths of its green leaves and casting its delicious perfume afar. Then Lucy said, suddenly changing the subject: "I have been in a dream all day. This morning I went for a walk far into the country, as I often do, and I took Omar with me." "Omar?" asked Sir Percy, not quite understanding her. "’The Rubaiyat,’ I mean. Everybody reads it here. It always takes me into another world. Our life is so vivid, so full of action, so concerned with to-day, and Omar’s world is all peace and dreaming. I daresay you can read Omar in the original?" "A little; but I didn’t know that Americans liked peace and dreaming." "Wait until you see more of us. There is Senator March; I must speak to him." She turned and went up to Senator March, who had come in and was standing talking with Mrs. Armytage. Sir Percy remained some minutes looking at the sight before him. He was reminded of those meetings of the Primrose League which bring together all manner of men and women. Meanwhile he was acutely conscious of Lucy’s presence, although half the room separated them. She was indeed like the jessamine flower whose languorous sweet odour forces one to seek it. Sir Percy found a few acquaintances, and while talking with them Senator March made his adieux and came up.