“Now, truly, Mrs. Brown, you are cruel,” Mr. Herryman Hoggenwater said, pathetically, interrupting her thoughts.  “I tell you I am simply longing to know if you will come for a drive in my automobile, and you do not answer, but stare into space.”

Theodora turned, and then the young American understood that for all her gentle looks it would be wiser not to take this tone with her.

He admired her frantically, he was just “crazy” about her, he told Mrs. McBride later.  And so now he exerted himself to please and amuse her with all the vivacity of his brilliant nation.

Theodora was enjoying herself.  Environment and atmosphere affected her strongly.  The bright pink lights, the sense of night and the soft moon beyond the wide open balcony windows, the scents of flowers, the gayety, and, above all, the knowledge that Lord Bracondale was there, gazing at her whenever opportunity offered, with eyes in which she, unlearned as she was in such things, could read plainly admiration and unrest.

It all went to her head a little, and she became quite animated and full of repartee and sparkle, so that Josiah Brown could hardly believe his eyes and ears when he glanced across at her.  This his meek and quiet mouse!

His heart swelled with pride when Mrs. McBride leaned over and said to him: 

“You know, Mr. Brown, you have got the most beautiful wife in the world, and I hope you value her properly.”

It was this daring quality in his hostess Josiah appreciated so much.  “She’s not afraid to say anything, ’pon my soul,” he said to himself.  “I rather think I know my own possession’s value!” he answered aloud, with a pompous puffing out of chest, and a cough to clear the throat.

The Austrian Prince on Theodora’s right hand pleased her.  He had a quiet manner, and the freemasonry of breeding in two people, even of different nations, drew her to talk naturally to him in a friendly way.

He was a fatalist, he told her; what would be would be, and mortals like himself and herself were just scattered leaves, like barks floating down a current where were mostly rocks ahead.

“Then must we strike the rocks whether we wish it or no?” asked Theodora.  “Cannot we help ourselves?”

“Ah, madame, for that,” he said, “we can strive a little and avoid this one and that, but if it is our fate we will crash against them in the end.”

“What a sad philosophy!” said Theodora.  “I would rather believe that if one does one’s best some kind angel will guide one’s bark past the rocks and safely into the smooth waters of the pool beyond.”

“You are young,” he said, “and I hope you will find it so, but I fear you will have to try very hard, and circumstances may even then be too strong for you.”

“In that case I must go under altogether,” said Theodora; but her eyes smiled, and that night at least such a possibility seemed far enough away from her.