The English weather for once its reputation, and the whole month of May was warm and fine. It seemed that the springtime brought back Lucy's youth to her; and, surrendering herself with all her heart to her new happiness, she took a girlish pleasure in the gaieties of the season. Alec had said nothing yet, but she was assured of his love, and she gave herself up to him with all the tender strength of her nature. She was a little overwhelmed at the importance which he seemed to have acquired, but she was very proud as well. The great ones of the earth were eager to do him honour. Papers were full of his praise. And it delighted her because he came to her for protection from lionising friends. She began to go out much more; and with Alec, Dick Lomas, and Mrs. Crowley, went much to the opera and often to the play. They had charming little dinner parties at the Carlton and amusing suppers at the Savoy. Alec did not speak much on these occasions. It pleased him to sit by and listen, with a face but smiling eyes, to the nonsense that Dick Lomas and the pretty American talked . And Lucy watched him. Every day she found something new to interest her in the strong, sunburned face; and sometimes their eyes met: then they smiled quietly. They were very happy.  
One evening Dick asked the others to sup with him; and since Alec had a public dinner to attend, and Lucy was going to the play with Lady Kelsey, he took Julia Crowley to the opera. To make an even number he invited Robert Boulger to join them at the Savoy. After brushing his hair with the thought his thinning locks compelled, Dick waited in the vestibule for Mrs. Crowley. Presently she came, looking very pretty in a gown of flowered brocade which made her resemble a shepherdess in an old French picture. With her diamond necklace and a tiara in her dark hair, she looked like a dainty princess playing fantastically at the simple life.
 
'I think people are too stupid,' she broke out, as she joined Dick. 'I've just met a woman who said to me: "Oh, I hear you're going to America. Do go and call on my sister. She'll be so glad to see you." "I shall be delighted," I said, "but where does your sister live?" "Jonesville, Ohio," "Good heavens," I said, "I live in New York, and what should I be doing in Jonesville, Ohio?"'
 
'Keep calm,' said Dick.
 
'I shall not keep calm,' she answered. 'I hate to be obviously thought next door to a red Indian by a woman who's slab-sided and round-shouldered. And I'm sure she has dirty petticoats.'
 
'Why?'
 
'English women do.'
 
'What a libel!' cried Dick.
 
At that moment they saw Lady Kelsey come in with Lucy, and a moment later Alec and Robert Boulger joined them. They went in to supper and sat down.
 
'I hate Amelia,' said Mrs. Crowley emphatically, as she laid her long white gloves by the side of her.
 
'I the prejudice with which you regard a very jolly sort of a girl,' answered Dick.
 
'Amelia has everything that I object to in a woman. She has no figure, and her legs are much too long, and she doesn't wear corsets. In the daytime she has a weakness for picture hats, and she can't say boo to a goose.'
 
'Who is Amelia?' asked Boulger.
 
'Amelia is Mr. Lomas' affianced wife,' answered the lady, with a provoking glance at him.
 
'I didn't know you were going to be married, Dick,' said Lady Kelsey, inclined to be a little hurt because nothing had been said to her of this.
 
'I'm not,' he answered. 'And I've never set eyes on Amelia yet. She is an imaginary character that Mrs. Crowley has invented as the sort of woman whom I would marry.'
 
'I know Amelia,' Mrs. Crowley went on. 'She wears quantities of false hair, and she'll adore you. She's so and so quiet, and she thinks you such a . But don't ask me to be nice to Amelia.'
 
'My dear lady, Amelia wouldn't approve of you. She'd think you much too , and she wouldn't like your American accent. You must never forget that Amelia is the granddaughter of a baronet.'
 
'I shall hold her up to Fleming as an awful warning of the woman whom I won't let him marry at any price. "If you marry a woman like that, Fleming," I shall say to him, "I shan't leave you a penny. It shall all go the University of Pennsylvania."'
 
'If ever it is my good fortune to meet Fleming, I shall have great pleasure in kicking him hard,' said Dick. 'I think he's a most objectionable little beast.'
 
'How can you be so absurd? Why, my dear Mr. Lomas, Fleming could take you up in one hand and throw you over a ten-foot wall.'
 
'Fleming must be a sportsman,' said Bobbie, who did not in the least know whom they were talking about.
 
'He is,' answered Mrs. Crowley. 'He's been used to the saddle since he was three years old, and I've never seen the fence that would make him lift a hair. And he's the best swimmer at Harvard, and he's a wonderful shot—I wish you could see him shoot, Mr. MacKenzie—and he's a dear.'
 
'Fleming's a prig,' said Dick.
 
'I'm afraid you're too old for Fleming,' said Mrs. Crowley, looking at Lucy. 'If it weren't for that, I'd make him marry you.'
 
'Is Fleming your brother, Mrs. Crowley?' asked Lady Kelsey.
 
'No, Fleming's my son.'
 
'But you haven't got a son,' retorted the elder lady, much mystified.
 
'No, I know I haven't; but Fleming would have been my son if I'd had one.'
 
'You mustn't mind them, Aunt Alice,' smiled Lucy . 'They argue by the hour about Amelia and Fleming, and neither of them exists; but sometimes they go into such details and grow so excited that I really begin to believe in them myself.'
 
But Mrs. Crowley, though she appeared a light-hearted and thoughtless little person, had much common sense; and when their party was ended and she was giving Dick a lift in her carriage, she showed that, notwithstanding her , her eyes throughout the evening had been well occupied.
 
'Did you owe Bobbie a that you asked him to supper?' she asked suddenly.
 
'Good heavens, no. Why?'
 
'I hope Fleming won't be such a donkey as you are when he's your age.'
 
'I'm sure Amelia will be much more polite than you to the , gentleman who has the good fortune to be her husband.'
 
'You might have noticed that the poor boy was eating his heart out with and , and Lucy was too much absorbed in Alec to pay the very smallest attention to him.'
 
'What are you talking about?'
 
Mrs. Crowley gave him a glance of amused .
 
'Haven't you noticed that Lucy is in love with Mr. MacKenzie, and it doesn't move her in the least that poor Bobbie has fetched and carried for her for ten years, done everything she to ask, and been generally nice and and charming?'
 
'You amaze me,' said Dick. 'It never struck me that Lucy was the kind of girl to fall in love with anyone. Poor thing. I'm so sorry.'
 
'Why?'
 
'Because Alec wouldn't dream of marrying. He's not that sort of man.'
 
'Nonsense. Every man is a marrying man if a woman really makes up her mind to it.'
 
'Don't say that. You terrify me.'
 
'You need not be in the least alarmed,' answered Mrs. Crowley, coolly, 'because I shall refuse you.'
 
'It's very kind of you to me,' he answered, smiling. 'But all the same I don't think I'll risk a proposal.'
 
'My dear friend, your only safety is in flight.'
 
'Why?'
 
'It must be obvious to the meanest intelligence that you've been on the of proposing to me for the last four years.'
 
'Nothing will induce me to be false to Amelia.'
 
'I don't believe that Amelia really loves you.'
 
'I never said she did; but I'm sure she's quite willing to marry me.'
 
'I think that's detestably vain.'
 
'Not at all. However old, ugly, and generally a man is, he'll find a heap of charming girls who are willing to marry him. Marriage is still the only decent means of for a really nice woman.'
 
'Don't let's talk about Amelia; let's talk about me,' said Mrs. Crowley.
 
'I don't think you're half so interesting.'
 
'Then you'd better take Amelia to the play to-morrow night instead of me.'
 
'I'm afraid she's already engaged.'
 
'Nothing will induce me to play second to Amelia.'
 
'I've taken the seats and ordered an dinner at the Carlton.'
 
'What have you ordered?'
 
'Potage bisque.'
 
Mrs. Crowley made a little face.
 
'Sole Normande.'
 
She her shoulders.
 
'Wild duck.'
 
'With an orange salad?'
 
'Yes.'
 
'I don't dislike that.'
 
'And I've ordered a souffle with an ice in the middle of it.'
 
'I shan't come.'
 
'Why?'
 
'You're not being really nice to me.'
 
'I shouldn't have thought you kept very well of dramatic art if you insist on marrying everyone who takes you to a theatre,' he said.
 
'I was very nicely brought up,' she answered , as the carriage stopped at Dick's door.
 
She gave him a ravishing smile as he took leave of her. She knew that he was ............