He had no anger for her. Jean might blaze in his defense, but his own
fires were not to be fanned by any words of Alma Drew. If he lost his
fortune, Jean would still care for him. It was fore-ordained, as fixed
as the stars.

So he went back to her, and when she saw him coming, the burden of her
distress fell from her. The world became once more hers and Derry's,
with everybody else shut out. When they had supper with the
Witherspoon party joining them, and Ralph palely repentant beside her,
she even, to the utter bewilderment of her father, smiled at him, and
talked as if their quarrel had never been.

Drusilla watched her with more than a tinge of envy. She was aware
that her own vivid charm was shadowed and eclipsed by the white flame
of Jean's youth and innocence. "And he loves her," she thought with a
tug of her heartstrings; "he loves her, and there'll never be anything
like it for him again."

She sat rather silently between Captain Hewes and Dr. McKenzie. Dr.
McKenzie had always admired Drusilla, but tonight his attention was
rather more than usual fixed upon her by a remark which Captain Hewes
had made when the two men had stood alone together watching the
dancers. "I have seen very little of American women--but to me
Drusilla Gray seems the supreme type."

"She is very attractive."

"She is more than that. She is inspiring, the embodiment of your best
ideals. When she sings one wonders that all men have not fought for