She has the usual literary and artistic topics at her fingers' end, and as she knows everybody, whenever the more abstract sides of a subject begin to bore her, she can fall back upon an endless store of gossip as lively, as brightly-coloured, and, on the whole, as harmless as she herself is.

Miss Bretherton had till a week or two ago but two subjects--Jamaica and the stage--the latter taken in a somewhat narrow sense.

Now, she has added to her store of knowledge a great number of first impressions of London notorieties, which naturally throw her mind and Mrs.Stuart's more frequently into contact with each other.

But I see that, after all, Mrs.Stuart had no need of any bridges of this kind to bring her on to common ground with Isabel Bretherton.

Her strong womanliness and the leaven of warm-hearted youth still stirring in her would be quite enough of themselves, and, besides, there is her critical delight in the girl's beauty, and the little personal pride and excitement she undoubtedly feels at having, in so creditable and natural a manner, secured a hold on the most interesting person of the season.