 never yet heard her personal appearance
alluded to in a loud, expressive voice. Gertrude looked away - not at Felix; she
was extremely pleased. It was not the compliment that pleased her; she did not
believe it; she thought herself very plain. She could hardly have told you the
source of her satisfaction; it came from something in the way the Baroness
spoke, and it was not diminished - it was rather deepened, oddly enough - by the
young girl's disbelief. Mr. Wentworth was silent; and then he asked, formally,
»Won't you come into the house?«
    »These are not all; you have some other children,« said the Baroness.
    »I have a son,« Mr. Wentworth answered.
    »And why doesn't he come to meet me?« Eugenia cried. »I am afraid he is not
so charming as his sisters.«
    »I don't know; I will see about it,« the old man declared.
    »He is rather afraid of ladies,« Charlotte said, softly.
    »He is very handsome,« said Gertrude, as loud as she could.
    »We will go in and find him. We will draw him out of his cachette.« And the
Baroness took Mr. Wentworth's arm, who was not aware that he had offered it to
her, and who, as they walked toward the house, wondered whether he ought to have
offered it and whether it was proper for her to take it if it had not been
offered. »I want to know you well,« said the Baroness, interrupting these
meditations, »and I want you to know me.«
    »It seems natural that we should know each other,« Mr. Wentworth rejoined.
»We are near relatives.«
    »Ah, there comes a moment in life when one reverts, irresistibly, to one's
natural ties - to one's natural affections. You must have found that!« said
Eugenia.
    Mr. Wentworth had been told the day before by Felix that Eugenia was very
clever, very brilliant, and the information had held him in some suspense. This
was the cleverness, he supposed; the brilliancy was beginning. »Yes, the natural
affections are very strong,« he murmured.
    »In some people,« the Baroness declared. »Not in all.« Charlotte was walking
beside her; she took hold of her hand again, smiling always. »And you, cousine,
where did you get that enchanting complexion?« she went
