s a great quality?« asked the old man.
    Eugenia meditated, with her eyes upon his. »You think one gets tired of it,
eh?«
    »I don't know that I am prepared to say that,« said Mr. Wentworth.
    »Well, we will say, then, that it is tiresome for others but delightful for
one's self. A woman's husband, you know, is supposed to be her second self; so
that, for Felix and Gertrude, gayety will be a common property.«
    »Gertrude was always very gay,« said Mr. Wentworth. He was trying to follow
this argument.
    Robert Acton took his hands out of his pockets and came a little nearer to
the Baroness. »You say you gain by being known,« he said. »One certainly gains
by knowing you.«
    »What have you gained?« asked Eugenia.
    »An immense amount of wisdom.«
    »That's a questionable advantage for a man who was already so wise!«
    Acton shook his head. »No, I was a great fool before I knew you!«
    »And being a fool you made my acquaintance? You are very complimentary.«
    »Let me keep it up,« said Acton, laughing. »I hope, for our pleasure, that
your brother's marriage will detain you.«
    »Why should I stop for my brother's marriage when I would not stop for my
own?« asked the Baroness.
    »Why shouldn't you stop in either case, now that, as you say, you have
dissolved that mechanical tie that bound you to Europe?«
    The Baroness looked at him a moment. »As I say? You look as if you doubted
it.«
    »Ah,« said Acton, returning her glance, »that is a remnant of my old folly!
We have other attractions,« he added. »We are to have another marriage.«
    But she seemed not to hear him; she was looking at him still. »My word was
never doubted before,« she said.
    »We are to have another marriage,« Acton repeated, smiling.
    Then she appeared to understand. »Another marriage?« And she looked at the
others. Felix was chattering to Gertrude; Charlotte, at a distance, was watching
them; and Mr. Brand, in quite another quarter, was turning his back to them,
and, with his hands under his coat-tails and his large head on one side, was
looking
