CHAPTER I.TWO GENERATIONS.
Why all delights are vain, but that most vain Which with pain purchased doth inherit pain.
"My dear--Madam--what you call heart does not come into the question at all." Sir John Meredith was sitting slightly behind Lady Cantourne, leaning towards her with a somewhat stiffened replica of his former grace.

But he was not looking at her--and she knew it.
They were both watching a group at the other side of the great ballroom.
"Sir John Meredith on Heart," said the old lady, with a depth of significance in her voice.
"And why not ?" "Yes, indeed.

Why not ?" Sir John smiled with that well-bred cynicism which a new school has not yet succeeded in imitating.

They were of the old school, these two; and their worldliness, their cynicism, their conversational attitude, belonged to a bygone period.

It was a cleaner period in some ways--a period devoid of slums.