julia’s new french slippers pinched, and her tiara pressed on certain nerves of her head, as the more humble hat pin has been known to do. the procession up the staircase seemed endless. to julia it looked like a river of jewels; she had ceased to know or care who were the mere women beneath it. not all of the men were foils. royalty, the entire cabinet, and the diplomatic corps were present; gorgeous uniforms, sashes, and orders saved many men from being mistaken for waiters.

as the first guests were ascending, julia had turned to the duke and said sweetly:?—

“i have asked ishbel and bridgit, and they have promised to come.”

“you have what?” asked the duke, his dull eyes glowing.

“they were my first friends in england, and as i am your hostess, it occurred to me that i had the right to issue a few invitations on my own account. i merely mention it, that you may not be betrayed by surprise when you see them.”

“you have taken a purely feminine advantage—waiting until this moment to tell me—when i can do nothing!” it was long since the duke had felt himself on fire with passion.

“of course we all take our advantages where we can, and are as deceitful as possible,” said julia, smiling into his snapping eyes. “those are primal weapons, and you gave them to us. here come some terribly important people.”

the duke had been forced to swallow his wrath, and, in a few moments, forgot it in the sudden stream of arrivals. after a time fatigue overcame him and he slipped away, leaving julia alone with lady arabella (yellow and bony in white embossed velvet and rubies). france was making himself agreeable to the dowagers. the interview with his wife had inspired him with a longing to go out and entice some wretch of the streets to a hiding-place, where he could beat her to a jelly, but the gall in his blood did not affect his shrewd cunning brain, which steadily pursued its object. to-night was his first opportunity to be gallant to women, politics and sport having claimed him since his illness; and after a few well-turned compliments, he talked of nothing but the beauty and virtues of his wife. perhaps the duke was the only human being who really liked him, for, without magnetism or charm of any sort, he left both men and women cold where he did not repel; but to-night he acquitted himself so creditably that several mothers thought upon their loss with regret.

julia’s mind was beginning to play her strange tricks. carlyle’s “french revolution” had been among the books at bosquith, and its style had so fascinated her that she had read it twice. it so happened that a number of extremely handsome women with white hair honored the kingsborough ball to-night. some were young. all were gorgeously bedecked. the intense hard glitter of diamonds dissolved into mist, took on fantastic shapes: graceful powdered heads, glittering with jewels, on the top of pikes, warm pampered bodies blocking the stairs.

it was not so much that julia’s mind was awakening to the problem of the poor, the menace of the unemployed and the underpaid; in truth, she generally shuddered and turned away when bridgit and ishbel discussed the subject; but these spectacular women on the grand staircase of kingsborough house seemed so ripe! they looked so useless, so languidly magnificent, so overbred, so close to the apotheosis of their destiny, that—again her fancy veered—julia half expected to see a row of footlights behind them; then a sudden shifting of scenery, and the tumbrel and guillotine. the time came when julia knew many of them well enough to deal out a greater measure of justice than the outsider that hurls the word “parasite” at every woman fortunate enough to possess what the poor all want—wealth. she learned that many of them worked harder for their political husbands than an army of secretaries, that others rose, during the season, at an hour when they fain would have slept off the fatigue of the day before, in order to get through a mass of correspondence relating to the particular problem, political, social, or economic, they were striving to solve. many of these women were mothers to their tenantry, watching over the growth and education of every girl and boy born on their estates. others went daily to settlements, some to districts so abandoned as to be practically hopeless, and requiring a mettle far higher than the mere soldier needs when racing his fellows to battle. some worked with churches, others with societies, others alone; nearly all were interested in one charity or another, many trying to feel their way through the obvious method of relief to some cause they could grapple with, since the power to legislate was forbidden them. scarcely one of those women, dressed from paris, weighted down with jewels old and new, but faced the serious side of life at some hour during the twenty-four; but although julia came to know this, the impression of the terrible immaturity of civilization, caused by the blind vanity and selfishness of human nature at the outset, and persisted in through the centuries in spite of lessons written in blood, and of the gross unfairness of life, never left her. if she was in the toils of youth at present, and far more interested in herself than in the world and its problems, the mere fact that these blue marsh lights could dance across her mind occasionally, would have satisfied her more advanced friends that when the awakening came it would be sudden and final.

but not to-night. her visions fled. she looked down into a pair of dark satiric eyes, and her own flashed back a more than courteous welcome. ishbel had come some time since, and after piloting the delighted mr. jones up and down for half an hour (wearing his diamonds and looking the radiant wife), had deposited him between two of the haughty dowagers he loved, and fluttered off with her court. but bridgit was late. she had demurred at coming at all, being “sick of the game”; but had yielded to julia’s importunities, partly to “please the child,” partly because her mischievous soul suspected that the invitation did not emanate from headquarters, and delighted in giving the duke “a turn.” she might be well on the road to socialism, and have come to the end of her capacity for mere pleasure, but she had not lost her sense of humor; and inborn arrogance of class never dies, no matter how amenable the brain to reason, and to a sincere democracy which manifests itself so effectively in manner. bridgit’s paternal grandfather was a duke with three more quarterings to his credit than kingsborough’s, ancestral performances known to every student of history, and two strains of royal blood with and without the bend sinister; therefore, did mrs. herbert feel that she was doing the old pudding an honor in coming to his musty barrack whether invited or not. and, automatically no doubt, she had attired herself in the fashion of her class, of the women in whose company she was to spend a night once more. she wore a gown of gold colored brocade opening over a round skirt of rose point. rising out of the coils of her wiry black hair was an all-round crown of diamonds, and on her neck, falling to the soft lace of her corsage, was a chain of diamonds and pear-shaped pearls. with her fine upstanding figure, her towering height, and flashing black eyes, she might make the most compelling figure imaginable at the head of a rebel army singing the marseillaise, but to-night there was no more stately dame in kingsborough house.

julia, somewhat in the fashion of royalty, passed on the people separating them, and grasped bridgit’s hand, revivified by the sight of a dear and familiar face.

“oh, i’m so glad,” she cried, indifferent to stares and the displeasure of lady arabella. “and they must nearly all have come. do wait for me?—”

she stopped short. she had had eyes only for bridgit. mechanically they had travelled on to bridgit’s escort. the man standing with his hand outstretched was nigel herbert.

“he got home this afternoon,” said mrs. herbert, casually. “i knew you would like to see him, so i brought him on. how do, lady arabella? always loved you in rubies.”

“huh!” said lady arabella. she would have cut this dangerous apostate if she had been equal to the effort; but to freeze that bright powerful gaze, by no means without malice, was beyond her capacity, so she merely sniffed and advised her to seek the duke, who would be as delighted as herself to welcome mrs. herbert to kingsborough house. she was of the many that blundered over sarcasm, and her soul shivered under the sweetness of bridgit’s acceptance.

meanwhile julia was exclaiming to nigel:?—

“oh, but i am glad to see you! and do go to the blue room and wait for me. it’s downstairs behind the library.”

nigel’s face had flushed, then turned pale; the first moment of the renewal of their acquaintance had been an awkward one for him. it was with some difficulty that he had been persuaded to come at all. for many reasons he had wished never to meet her again, and had returned to england only because it was necessary to see his book through the press; a melancholy experience with the last having lost him his faith in proof-readers forever.

but when he saw the welcome in those big shining eyes, the happy smile on those young parted lips, he forgot even the subtle changes he had noted in her face, while still unobserved, and he flushed again, his heart beat rapidly. “does she care?” he thought wildly. “not now! not now!—but?—”

julia was staring with almost childish delight at the frank handsome face of her first friend in england. she forgot the romantic hour at bosquith, forgot that she had sat up all night to contrive an extinguisher for the embarrassing passion of this misguided young man, remembered only that here was a real friend; moreover, one possessing that magnet of sex lacking in bridgit and ishbel (such being the cross currents in her still imperfect soul), so congenial that she could have flung her arms about him at the head of the grand staircase of kingsborough house. she had never met any one she liked half as well.

he caught his breath sharply, whether in relief or disillusion, he did not pretend to guess at this moment.

“i’ll wait for you,” he said, and made way for the next arrivals.

some ten minutes later julia turned to lady arabella.

“they are beginning to straggle,” she said. “if you don’t mind i won’t stay any longer.”

“i do mind,” severely. “and your place is here, child as you are.”

“i can’t see why. . . . more guests. . . . who cares about a child? and you are vastly more important.”

“you have acquitted yourself very creditably. . . . besides, people are curious to see you, and nobody cares for an old thing like me.”

“half of them are still glowing with the honor of having shaken hands with you—you go out so seldom. . . . besides, my slippers pinch. i want to put on an old pair.”

“i always wear slippers a size too large and made by a surgical shoemaker, on occasions like this. you must do the same. i should have told you.”

“i’ll order a pair to-morrow, but that doesn’t do me any good now.”

“very well. run along.”