to be old and cannot possibly be young."

"Nonsense! I will not listen to you!" and her ladyship opened her
jewelled fan and spread it before her eyes to completely screen
the objectionable Doctor from view. "Don't you know your theories
are quite out of date? Nobody is old,--we all utterly refuse to be
old! Why," and she shut her fan with a sudden jerk, "I shall have
you calling ME old next."

"Never, madam!" said Dr. Dean gallantly laying his hand upon his
heart. "You are quite an exception to the rule. You have passed
through the furnace of marriage and come out unscathed. Time has
done its worst with you, and now retreats, baffled and powerless;
it can touch you no more!"

Whether this was meant as a compliment or the reverse it would
have been difficult to say, but Lady Fulkeward graciously accepted
it as the choicest flattery, and bowed, smiling and gratified.
Dinner was now drawing to its end, and people were giving their
orders for coffee to be served to them on the terrace and in the
gardens, Gervase among the rest. The Doctor turned to him.

"I should like to see your picture of the Princess," he said,--
"that is if you have no objection."

"Not the least in the world," replied Gervase,--"only it isn't the
Princess, it is somebody else."

A faint shudder passed over him. The Doctor noticed it.