We have both our tastes; mine, if I were a man, would incline more to the brilliant and handsome." She would have added more, but at that moment Lady Peters drew aside the silken hanging.
"My dear children," she said, "I should ill play my part of chaperon if I did not remind you of the hour.

We have been celebrating my birthday, but my birthday is past and gone--it is after midnight." Lord Arleigh looked up in wonder.
"After midnight?
Impossible! Yet I declare my watch proves that it is.
It is all the fault of the starlight, Lady Peters; you must blame that." Lady Peters went out to them.
"I do not wonder at your lingering here," she said.

"How calm and sweet the night is! It reminds me of the night in 'Romeo and Juliet.' It was on such a night _Jessica_--" Philippa held up her hands in horror.
"No more poetry to-night, dear Lady Peters; we have had more than enough." "Is that true, Lord Arleigh?
Have you really had more than enough ?" "I have not found it so," he replied.

"However, I must go.

I wish time would sometimes stand still; all pleasant hours end so soon.