All seemed vaguely safe; and yet he was conscious that all was vaguely unsettled.

The world was on the eve of one of its cyclic changes, and unrest seemed to make the air murky.
He tried to be polite and listened attentively to the lady on his right, who was telling him the latest gossip about a certain famous marriage.
But his air was so manifestly artificial that she turned to the presumably more attractive topic of his doings.
"You look ill," she said--she was one who adopted the motherly air towards young men, which only a pretty woman can use.

"Are they over-working you in the House ?" "Pretty fair," and he smiled grimly.

"But really I can't complain.

I have had eight hours' sleep in the last four days, and I don't think Beauregard could say as much.