"My dear," said Mr. Evelyn, "Mr. Carleton is too much of a philosopher to care about beauty--every man of sense is."
"I am sure he is not," said Mrs. Evelyn smoothly. "Mr. Carleton,--you are an admirer of beauty, are you not, sir?"
"I hope so, Mrs. Evelyn," he said smiling,--"but perhaps I shall shock you by adding,--not of beauties."
"That sounds very odd," said Florence.
"But let us understand," said Mrs. Evelyn with the air of a person solving a problem,--"I suppose we are to infer that your taste in beauty is of a peculiar kind?"
"That may be a fair inference," he said.
"What is it then?" said Constance eagerly.
"Yes--what is it you look for in a face?" said Mrs. Evelyn.
"Let us hear whether America has any chance," said Mr. Thorn, who had joined the group and placed himself precisely so as to hinder Fleda's view.
"My fancy has no stamp of nationality, in this, at least," he said pleasantly.