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Her whole being dilated in an atround she required, the only climate she could breathe in But the luxury of others was not what she wanted A few years ago it had sufficed her: she had taken her dailywho provided it Now she was beginning to chafe at the obligations it imposed, to feel herself a mere pensioner on the splendour which had once see to her There were evento pay her way

For a long tie She knew she could not afford it, and she was afraid of acquiring so expensive a taste She had seen the danger exe Ned Silverton, for instance, the char fair boy now seated in abject rapture at the elbow of Mrs Fisher, a striking divorcee with eyes and gowns as emphatic as the head-lines of her "case" Lily could re Silverton had stumbled into their circle, with the air of a strayed Arcadian who has published chare journal

Since then he had developed a taste for Mrs Fisher and bridge, and the latter at least had involved him in expenses from which he had been more than once rescued by harassed maiden sisters, who treasured the sonnets, and ithout sugar in their tea to keep their darling afloat Ned's case was faood deal e from surprise to amusement, and from amusement to anxiety, as he passed under the spell of the terrible god of chance; and she was afraid of discovering the same symptoms in her own case

For in the last year she had found that her hostesses expected her to take a place at the card-table It was one of the taxes she had to pay for their prolonged hospitality, and for the dresses and trinkets which occasionally replenished her insufficient wardrobe And since she had played regularly the passion had grown on her Once or twice of late she had won a large suainst future losses, had spent it in dress or jewelry; and the desire to atone for this iaher stakes at each fresh venture She tried to excuse herself on the plea that, in the Trenor set, if one played at all one y; but she knew that the ga passion was upon her, and that in her present surroundings there was s it