"I'm afraid that young man will not forgive me," said Lord Henry, when the party were out of earshot. "Oh, that's ridiculous," said Leonetta; "as if I'd never seen a bunny shot in my life before. But let me think, what were we saying? Oh, yes, I know. You were going to read me." He laughed. She looked coyly up at him. "You know, Lord Henry, you really are a little disconcerting. You are one of those people who make one feel one ought to have done better at school." "I devoutly trust I don't," he protested. She examined his fine intelligent hands, and perceived as so many had perceived before her, the baffling mixture of deep thoughtfulness and youth in his eyes and brow. "You do a little," she said, picking up a leaf and bending it about as she spoke. "And I do hate feeling stupid." "You--stupid!" he ejaculated, and laughed. "You must know what I mean," she added. "You are beautiful, Leonetta," he said, "and that in itself is the greatest accomplishment, because it cannot be acquired." "I thought you hadn't noticed me at all," she observed, trying to conceal the rapture she felt. "I don't know about that,--one can't help looking at people who are constantly about one." He made an effort to give this remark the ring of indifference, and he succeeded. "But that's exactly it!" she cried. "They say that beautiful people are always stupid. That's why I say----" "Nobody who knows anything about it says that," he observed, as if he were stating an interesting axiomatic principle and without a trace of the leer of the adulator. "Really?" "Of course not," he pursued. "For a face to be beautiful, it must have certain proportions. It must have a certain length of nose, a certain length of chin, and above all a certain height of brow. Do you understand?" "I think so," she replied. "Well, then,--what is the obvious conclusion?" "I'm afraid I don't see it," she said. "I say a certain height of brow is essential to a well-proportioned face," he remarked with cool persuasiveness. "But what lies beneath the brow? Come, Leonetta, you know!" "The brain?" she suggested. "Of course," he exclaimed. "And what is more, beneath the brow lies the thinking part of the brain. So that in order really to have a fair face we must have a fair proportion of brain." She smiled and bowed her head. "Peachy's clever, isn't she?" she demanded. "So I suppose we girls ought not to be so very dull." "Don't believe those who tell you beautiful people are stupid. It is the ugly who say that to console themselves. Just as the fools of the world write books about geniuses being mad." She laughed. "You do say funny things!" she cried. "Funny?" he repeated. "Well, true things then. I wish everybody talked as you do. One feels so much safer to know the truth about everything." At this point, however, Cleopatra came towards them from the house.