He imagined more than once that there had been a passionate scene between them about coming out, and wondered what arguments Mrs.Light had found effective.

But Christina's face told no tales, and she moved about, beautiful and silent, looking absently over people's heads, barely heeding the men who pressed about her, and suggesting somehow that the soul of a world-wearied mortal had found its way into the blooming body of a goddess.

"Where in the world has Miss Light been before she is twenty," observers asked, "to have left all her illusions behind ?" And the general verdict was, that though she was incomparably beautiful, she was intolerably proud.

Young ladies to whom the former distinction was not conceded were free to reflect that she was "not at all liked." It would have been difficult to guess, however, how they reconciled this conviction with a variety of conflicting evidence, and, in especial, with the spectacle of Roderick's inveterate devotion.

All Rome might behold that he, at least, "liked" Christina Light.