It may be, of course, that he has a better reading of human nature than we have, and that he knows such gestures catch the eye, like long hair or a red necktie.

It is very much as if he said--'Yes, I'll steal if I'm driven to it, but--confound it!--I won't lie!'" After all, the sting to her vanity had been too slight to leave an impression.

There must be another cause for the shadow that had fallen over her spirits.

Even a reigning beauty of thirty years could scarcely expect to be invincible; and she had known too much homage in the past to resent what was obviously a lack of discrimination.

Her disappointment went deeper than this, for it had its source in the stories she had heard of Vetch that sounded original and dramatic.