CHAPTER XV.
Shortly afterward Elfrida read Mr.Pater's "Marius," with what she herself called, somewhat extravagantly, a "hungry and hopeless" delight.

I cannot say that this Oxonian's tender classical recreation had any critical effect upon her; she probably found it much too limpid and untroubled to move her in the least.

I mention it by way of saying that Lawrence Cardiff lent it to her, with a smile of half-indulgent, half-contemptuous assent to some of her ideas, which was altered, when she returned the volumes, by the active necessity of defending his own.

Elfrida had been accepted at the Cardiffs, with the ready tolerance which they had for types that were remarkable to them, and not entirely disagreeable; though Janet was always telling her father that it was impossible that Elfrida should be a type--she was an exception of the most exceptionable sort.

"I'll admit her to be abnormal, if you like," Cardiff would return, "but only from an insular point of view.