think, my dear Caroline, but there is something unaccountably
interesting about him, as you must admit, although you disapprove
of his appearance."

"I think it is quite dreadful," Mrs. Ebley sniffed, "and I hear
from Martha that he has no less than two valets, and a suite of
princely rooms and motor cars, and the whole passage on the second
floor is filled with his trunks."

Martha had been Mrs. Ebley's maid for twenty-five years, and as
Stella well knew was fairly accurate in her recounting of the
information she picked up. This luridly extravagant picture,
however, did not appal her. And she found herself constantly
dwelling upon it and the stranger all the time she followed her
relations about in the gorgeous church.

Fate did not seem to be going to smile upon the drive project,
however--for Mrs. Ebley, far from appearing tired, actually
proposed tea in the hall when they got in--and there sat for at
least half an hour, while Stella saw Count Roumovski come in and
sit down and leisurely begin a cigarette, as he glanced at an
Italian paper. He was so intensely still, always peace seemed to
breathe from his atmosphere, but the very sight of him appeared to
exasperate the Aunt Caroline more and more.

"I wonder that man is not ashamed to be seen in a respectable
place," she snapped, "with his long hair and his bracelet--such
effeminacy is perfectly disgusting, Erasmus."

"I really cannot help it, my dear," Canon Ebley replied,