And later, Eva Payne, the once far unattainable, asked Mrs. Heth and her daughter for luncheon on Friday—­“with a few of our friends.”  Mamma received the invitation like an accolade.  Truly that ten thousand dollars might well have remained in bank, subject to personal check....

The little dinner, with its air of everything being all settled, was a huge success; a bit too huge to Hugo’s way of thinking.  It was eleven o’clock before he really had a word with Carlisle.

“It began to look like a house-party,” said he....

They were alone now in the drawing-room at home, a room whose dim beautiful lights made it look always at its best at night.  Mamma had just gone up.  Cally stood in front of a small plaque-mirror; she had taken off her wraps, and was now fluffing up her fine ash-gold hair where the scarf over her head had pressed it down.  The pose, with upraised arms, was an alluring one; she was lithe, with a charming figure.  And she still looked very young, as fresh as a rose, as new as spring and first love.

“Cally,” said Canning, behind her—­“I’ve fallen in love with your little name, you see, and I’m always going to call you by it after this—­Cally, did I ever mention to you that you’re the prettiest girl I ever saw.  Only pretty is not the word....”

Cally laughed at her reflection in the glass.

“You could never have fallen in love with me—­or my name—­unless you’d thought so....  Could you?”

“I’ve never asked myself.  But I could fall in love with everything else about you, too, because I’ve gone and done it.”

“I wonder ...  Anyhow none of the other things matter much, do they?  I can’t imagine your falling in love with a hideosity, no matter how worth loving she might be.”

“Under the circumstances, why bother to try?”

“It’s no bother, and it’s intensely interesting....”

Canning advanced a step.  Carlisle’s gaze moved a little and encountered his in the glass.  In his eyes lay his whole opinion of one half the human world....

“Don’t look at me in that proprietary way....”

Canning laughed softly.  He was fully prepared for coquetry.

“Proprietary!  It’s the last way, my dear, I should venture to look at you.”

She had allowed him to linger, certainly with no blindness as to what he desired to say to her.  She had stood there with no ignorance that the moment was favorable.  But now something seemed to have gone amiss, and she turned suddenly, frustrating whatever loverly intention he may have had.

Carlisle sat down in a circular brocaded chair, in which gold back and gold arms were one; a sufficiently decorative background for her shining decollete.  Hugo, standing and fingering his white tie, looked down at her with no loss of confidence in his handsome eyes.

“You’ve changed somehow,” said he.  “I haven’t quite placed it yet.  Still, I can feel it there.”