Rowland talked to various persons, but for the first time in his life his attention visibly wandered; he could not keep his eyes off Mary Garland.

Madame Grandoni had said that he sometimes spoke of her as pretty and sometimes as plain; to-night, if he had had occasion to describe her appearance, he would have called her beautiful.

She was dressed more than he had ever seen her; it was becoming, and gave her a deeper color and an ampler presence.

Two or three persons were introduced to her who were apparently witty people, for she sat listening to them with her brilliant natural smile.

Rowland, from an opposite corner, reflected that he had never varied in his appreciation of Miss Blanchard's classic contour, but that somehow, to-night, it impressed him hardly more than an effigy stamped upon a coin of low value.