There was an interesting elderly man who came among the rest of the guests. I was interested in him even before she spoke to me of him. He had a handsome, aquiline face which looked very clever. His talk was brilliantly witty. When he spoke people paused as if they could not bear to lose a phrase or even a word.
But in the midst of the trills of laughter surrounding him his eyes were unchangingly sad.
His face laughed or smiled, but his eyes never.
"He is the greatest artist in England and the most brilliant man," Mrs. MacNairn said to me, quietly. "But he is the saddest, too. He had a lovely daughter who was killed instantly, in his presence, by a fall. They had been inseparable companions and she was the delight of his life. That strange, fixed look has been in his eyes ever since. I know you have noticed it."
We were walking about among the flower- beds after tea, and Mr. MacNairn was showing me a cloud of blue larkspurs in a corner when I saw something which made me turn toward him rather quickly.
"There is one!" I said. "Do look at her!
Now you see what I mean! The girl standing with her hand on Mr. Le Breton's arm."
Mr. Le Breton was the brilliant man with the sad eyes. He was standing looking at a mass of white-and-purple iris at the other side of the garden. There were two or three people with him, but it seemed as if for a moment he had forgotten them--had forgotten where he was.
I wondered suddenly if his daughter had been fond of irises. He was looking at them with such a tender, lost expression. The girl, who was a lovely, fair thing, was standing quite close to him with her hand in his arm, and she was smiling, too--such a smile!
"Mr. Le Breton!" Mr. MacNairn said in a rather startled tone. "The girl with her hand in his arm?"
"Yes. You see how fair she is," I answered.
"And she has that transparent look. It is so lovely. Don't you think so? SHE is one of the White People."
He stood very still, looking across the flowers at the group. There was a singular interest and intensity in his expression. He watched the pair silently for a whole minute, I think.
"Ye-es," he said, slowly, at last, "I do see what you mean--and it IS lovely. I don't seem to know her well. She must be a new friend of my mother's. So she is one of the White People?"
"She looks like a white iris herself, doesn't she?" I said. "Now you know."
"Yes; now I know," he answered.
I asked Mrs. MacNairn later who the girl was, but she didn't seem to recognize my description of her. Mr. Le Breton had gone away by that time, and so had the girl herself.
"The tall, very fair one in the misty, pale- gray dress," I said. "She was near Mr. Le Breton when he was looking at the iris-bed.
You were cutting some roses only a few yards away from her. That VERY fair girl?"
Mrs. MacNairn paused a moment and looked puzzled.
"Mildred Keith is fair," she reflected, "but she was not there then. I don't recall seeing a girl. I was cutting some buds for Mrs.
Anstruther. I--" She paused again and turned toward her son, who was standing watching us. I saw their eyes meet in a rather arrested way.
"It was not Mildred Keith," he said. "Miss Muircarrie is inquiring because this girl was one of those she calls the White People. She was not any one I had seen here before."
There was a second's silence before Mrs.
MacNairn smilingly gave me one of her light, thrilling touches on my arm.
"Ah! I remember," she said. "Hector told me about the White People. He rather fancied I might be one."
I am afraid I rather stared at her as I slowly shook my head. You see she was almost one, but not quite.
"I was so busy with my roses that I did not notice who was standing near Mr. Le Breton," she said. "Perhaps it was Anabel Mere. She is a more transparent sort of girl than Mildred, and she is more blond. And you don't know her, Hector? I dare say it was she."
