sinister word, Mr. Cyril B. Thurlow, United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James, and his daughter Irene, we

ency, but who had withdrawn in favour of a more popular candidate, had been subsequently appointed - in recognit

sidence in London; but on this occasion, the political skies being clear, and there being a sufficient interval during which no ceremonial functions would require h

He was known as a man of something more than superficial scholarship, as a collector of medie

ellow-citizens five years before when he had come suddenly upon three men who were in the act o

he police had been subsequently called upon to do no more than remove one dying and two seriously wounded men, while his own injuries h

insisted on pronouncing schedule with a k, for which authority can be advanced, it is im

s, an only and motherless child, had left college at her urgency, and to his own satisfaction,

ver descendants of her Father's Scottish ancestors, or living relatives of

tore in a small village near Haddington. The man was of dubious character, and less than dubious sobriety, and the relationship had been left unclaimed

and including some of more than average social status. Considered broadly, they were a family in which charm of manner and speech, a resilient optimism, and an opportunist ability to avo

he family of his dead wife, and which he had lacked excuse to withdraw when he had observed, with some inward dissatisfaction, that the young man appeared to be gaining an exceptional measure of his daughter's regard, especially as he co

inclination to do so, "Did you notice that Will Kindell's been here since yesterday?" To which he answered with a vague illogical feeling of grievance (for the H?tel Splendide was

t think he knows we're here. It's more likely to be something to do with a Professor Blinkwell, or some name like that, on the floor below. I s

saying, "Well, if he's staying here,

permission would please Irene to do which was always his first aim. He did not wish the young man, for whom he had only moderate liking, to become too attractive to her, but he had an unreasonable feeling of resen

ause for annoyance had she known that anyone called her fat. A controlled plumpness, equally due to laziness, good living, and a placidity of conscience such as is possible only to those who can do evil without regret, would be a fairer desc

t the feminine instinct that aims less to pursue than attract pursuit. "I don't think," she said,

agreed drily, "I

with which to deal, but no more than could be cleared off in a couple of ho

red to his own room, and left her to a thoughtful s

the more expeditious manner of those whom conversation does not divert, had strolled into the smoking-room to pic

ster immediately below the entry of Cyril B. Thurlow and his daughter. The information would have been more welcome had he not come in pursuit

im might have wakened a warmer response. But that was only a few days after his introduction to Myra Blinkwell, and the commen

nce suggests (perhaps delusively), a voluptuousness of passion which is waiting to be aw