“You’ve quite captured Gerald’s heart,” said Miss Ley to Bertha a day or two later. “He’s to me that he thinks you ‘ .’”  
“He’s a very nice boy,” said Bertha, laughing.
 
The youth’s could not fail to increase her ; and she was amused by the stare of his green eyes, which, with a woman’s sense, she felt even when her back was turned. They followed her; they rested on her hair and on her beautiful hands; when she wore a low dress they burnt themselves on her neck and breast; she felt them travel along her arms, and embrace her figure. They were the most , smiling eyes, but with a certain mystery in their emerald depths. Bertha did not neglect to put herself in positions wherein Gerald could see her to advantage; and when he looked at her hands she could not be expected to withdraw them as though she were ashamed. Few Englishmen see anything in a woman, but her face; and it seldom occurs to them that her hand has the most delicate outlines, all grace and gentleness, with fingers and nails; they never look for the thousand things it has to say.
 
“Don’t you know it’s very rude to stare like that,” said Bertha, with a smile, turning round suddenly.
 
“I beg your pardon, I didn’t know you were looking.”
 
“I wasn’t, but I saw you all the same.”
 
She smiled at him most engagingly and she saw a sudden flame leap into his eyes. A married woman is always gratified by the capture of a youth’s heart: it is an unsolicited testimonial to her charms, and has the great advantage of being completely free from danger. She tells herself that there is no better training for a boy than to fall in love with a really nice woman a good deal older than himself. It teaches him how to behave and keeps him from getting into : how often have callow youths been know to ruin their lives by falling into the clutches of some adventuress with yellow hair and painted cheeks! Since she is old enough to be his mother, the really nice woman thinks there can be no harm in with the poor boy, and it seems to please him: so she makes him fetch and carry, and dazzles him, and drives him quite distracted, till his youthful comes to the rescue and he falls enamoured of a barmaid—when, of course, she calls him an ungrateful and low-minded , regrets she was so mistaken in his character, and tells him never to come near her again.
 
This of course only refers to the women that men fall in love with; it is well known that the others have the strictest views on the subject, and would sooner die than trifle with any one’s affections.
 
Gerald had the charming gift of becoming intimate with people at the shortest notice, and a cousin is an agreeable relation (especially when she’s pretty), with whom it is easy to get on. The relationship is not so close as to warrant disagreeableness, and close enough to permit , which are the most amusing part of conversation.
 
Within a week Gerald took to spending his whole day with Bertha, and she found the London season much more amusing than she had expected. She looked back with distaste to her only two visits to town. One had been her , and the other the first separation from her husband: it was odd that in both seem equally . Edward had almost disappeared from her thoughts, and she like a captive free from chains. Her only was his often-expressed desire to see her. Why could he not leave her alone, as she left him? He was perpetually asking when she would return to Court Leys; and she had to invent excuses to prevent his coming to London. She the idea of seeing him again.
 
But she put aside these thoughts when Gerald came to fetch her, sometimes for a bicycle ride in Battersea Park, sometimes to spend an hour in one of the museums. It is no wonder that the English are a race when one observes how many are the resorts supplied by the of governing bodies for the express purpose of . On a hot day what spot can be more than the British Museum, cool, silent, and roomy, with harmless statues which tell no tales, and afford matter for conversation to break an awkward pause?
 
The parks also are suited for those whose fancy turns to thoughts of love. Hyde Park is the fitting scene for an idyll in which Corydon wears patent-leather boots and a top-hat, while Phyllis has an frock which suits her perfectly. The well-kept lawns, the artificial water and the trim paths, give a mock rurality which is amusing to persons who do not wish to take things too seriously. Here, in the summer mornings, Gerald and Bertha spent much time. It pleased her to listen to his , and to look into his green eyes; he was such a very nice boy, and seemed so much attached to her! Besides, he was only in London for a month, and, quite secure in his departure, she could afford to let him fall a little in love.
 
“Are you sorry you’re going away so soon?” she asked.
 
“I shall be at leaving you.”
 
“It’s nice of you to say so.”
 
Bit by bit she extracted from him his discreditable history. Bertha was by a curiosity to know details, which she artfully, making him confess his that she might pretend to be angry. It gave her a curious thrill, partly of admiration, to think that he was such a depraved young person, and she looked at him with a sort of amused wonder. He was very different from the Edward. A childlike shone out of his handsome eyes, and yet he had already tasted the wine of many emotions. Bertha felt somewhat of the sex which gave opportunity, and the spirit which gave power, to seize life boldly, and from it all it had to offer.
 
“I ought to refuse to speak to you any more,” she said. “I ought to be ashamed of you.”
 
“But you’re not. That’s why you’re such a ripper.”
 
How could she be angry with a boy who adored her? His very fascinated her. Here was a man who would never hesitate to go to the devil for a woman, and Bertha was pleased at the compliment to her sex.
 
One evening Miss Ley was dining out, and Gerald asked Bertha to come to dinner with him, and then to the opera. She refused, thinking of the expense; but he was so eager, and she really so anxious to go, that finally she consented.
 
“Poor boy, he’s going away so soon, I may as well be nice to him.&r............