Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III Cbe Mayis ol tbe ALTHOUGH full of interest in himself, Felix had by no means grasped the extent of his importance to the world at large, his own simple demand being that people should interest him or leave him alone. Nor could he conceive that the fact of his writing a book should give him lustre in quarters where the book itself gave only offence. Therefore he often found happy sanctuary in a club, to the constant annoyance of many disapproving ladies who thought Mr. Gwynne could not be better occupied than in analysing their mysterious souls, or worshipping their eyebrows. Passing through the smoking-room of this refuge he was hailed by a shout from a group, who had almost ceased to rate him as an outsider from the moment that he had left the entire company perceptibly poorer from a bout at poker. In the esteem of these gentlemen he had quite lived down his liaison with literature. Indeed, they had obligingly forgotten it. "Ask him!" "See if Gwynne can do it!" "Just a second! Two to one, did you say?" The speaker made hasty jottings in a small account book. "Are you ready, Gwynne?" the first questioner called through a cloud of smoke. Felix paused somewhat restively on the threshold. He was in full tide of resolve to answer a note before it slipped from his mind, general politeness being his present form of piety toward Miss Anne's memory. "How do you pronounce . . . ?" A red- faced young man removed his cigar to enunciate the difficult combination with all clearness. "Wait a minute," called another voice. "Better explain first. My brother had anawful time getting a name for his yacht. All the good ones seemed taken. Now he's rooted up this somewhere, got some woman to help him, and I bet him that not a man at the club could pronounce it. ...