.

"IS IT ALWAYS SO--IN LIFE ?" The Duchess and her brother, an ex-diplomatist, now deaf and patiently amiable and garrulous, had met on the doorstep of Snowdon House, and together they insisted on Lord Windlehurst coming in for a talk.

The two men had not met for a long time, and the retired official had been one of Lord Windlehurst's own best appointments in other days.

The Duchess had the carriage wait in consequence.
The ex-official could hear little, but he had cultivated the habit of talking constantly and well.

There were some voices, however, which he could hear more distinctly than others, and Lord Windlehurst's was one of them--clear, well-modulated, and penetrating.