to consider the question of marrying Mr. John Endor.
He was good to look at certainly, his low voice a delight, there was not a hint of stiffness or formality about him, and, crowning joy, he had a sense of humor.
"How exciting!" Only a very little curry was needed for Miss Clarice to effect a superb, if rather stoical, recovery. "Do tell me. Who is the lady?"
"Miss Helen Sholto of Virginia, my dear." Mrs Wilber had seen the announcement in the Morning Post, and had known how to cherish it in a manner becoming a prime minister's lady. "But tell me, Mr. Endor, what does dear Lady Elizabeth say?" In she went again, horse, foot, and artillery. "Virginia is in the south, I believe, which is not the moneyed part of America. But all Americans, of course, have money."
A look of blank despair settled upon Miss Clarice, who was inclined to see her mother, not in terms of Mrs. Gladstone, but in terms of Mrs. Dizzy.
John Endor enjoyed his dinner all the same and so did Miss Clarice. The talk was really quite amusing. Mr. Williams himself was a model host and no mean conversationalist. He went back a long way. Even in Victorian times he had been in the inner circle of society and politics. He had a fund of anecdote which no man living knew better how to employ. He was always geniality itself, and on occasions of modest festivity in the bosom of his family he was wholly delightful.
It was in the library, however, after dinner that John
