"You are thinking that I am very bad?" she said. "You are trying to persuade yourself that you are very bad, and are finding a fictitious excitement in it; but it is all a mistake. It won't prove the consolation you expect it to," he answered. "Suppose you give it up before it gives rise to complications." "We are talking of Bertha Amory again," she said. "Let us talk about Agnes Sylvestre. Don't you find her very beautiful?" "Yes," he replied. "Why don't you say more than 'yes'?" she asked. "You mean more." "I couldn't mean more," he answered. "I should think it was enough to mean that much; there are even circumstances under which it might be too much." "She is lovelier than she used to be," said Bertha, reflectively; "and more fascinating." "Yes to that also," he responded. "Any one might love her," she went on, in the same tone. "_Any_ one." "I should think so," he replied, quietly. "I do not see how it would be possible," she added, "for any one--who was thrown with her--to resist her--unless it was some one like you." She turned a faint smile upon him. "I am glad," she said, "that _you_ are not susceptible." "So am I," he said, with some dryness. "If you were susceptible you would go too," she ended. "And I don't want _every_ one to leave me." "Every one?" he repeated. She rose as if to go, giving a light touch to the folds of her dress, and still smiling a little. "Colonel Tredennis has fallen a victim," she said, "in the most natural and proper manner. I knew he would, and he has distinguished himself by at once carrying out my plans for him. Now we must go back to the parlors. I have rested long enough." They returned just in time to meet a fresh party of callers, and Arbuthnot was of necessity thrown for the time being upon his own resources. These did not fail him. He found entertainment in his surroundings until a certain opportunity he had rather desired presented itself to him. He observed that Mrs. Sylvestre was once more near him, and that the men occupying her attention were on the point of taking their leave. By the time they had done so he had dexterously brought to a close his conversation with his male companion, and had unobtrusively forwarded himself, in an entirely incidental manner, as an aspirant for her notice. She received him with a quiet suggestion of pleasure in her smile. "Have you enjoyed the day?" he asked. "Yes," she replied. "I am almost sorry that it is so nearly over. It has been very agreeable." Then he found her eyes resting upon him in the quiet and rather incomprehensible way which Bertha had counted among her chiefest charms. "Have you enjoyed it?" she inquired. "If I had not," he said, "I should feel rather like a defeated candidate. One may always enjoy things if one applies one's self." She seemed to reflect upon him an instant again. "You see a great deal of Bertha?" she said. "Yes, a great deal. Would you mind telling me why you ask?"