to any one; but now the Collises
thought they had misjudged her.

This was the first entertainment for which Lady Dauntrey had contrived
to secure invitations for her guests; and Dodo, Mrs. Ernstein, and the
Collises had been delightedly telling every one they knew (not a large
number) that they were going to the _White Lady_ dance. It was a
pleasure at last to be able to tell of something happening to them which
might excite envy. So far, they had felt that as the Dauntreys' guests
they were being pitied or laughed at by those they would have liked to
impress.

There was no doubt that the Holbeins, being enormously rich, would do
everything very well; and Lady Dauntrey remarked more than once that
Mrs. Holbein had told her people were "simply crawling" for invitations.

Not till the last moment did Eve inform any one that she was taking Miss
Grant, for she had not yet mentioned speaking to her the other day at
the Casino. It was arranged that, the villa being much nearer than the
Hotel de Paris to the yacht, Mary should call for her chaperon;
therefore, as Eve had said nothing, it was a great surprise when the
house party had assembled in the drawing-room, putting on their wraps
and buttoning their gloves, to hear the "sulky codfish" announce Miss
Grant.

Mary walked into the dull drab room in a dress which appeared to be made
entirely of fine gold tissue, her hair banded with a wreath of diamond
laurel leaves, which made her look extraordinarily Greek and classic.

No one else, not even the rich Mrs. Ernstein, had a dress which compared
to this, and Mary's entrance was received in shocked silence by the
ladies, with the exception of Eve, who greeted her "mascotte" warmly,
with compliments.

Lady Dauntrey's efforts to make the drawing-room more habitable before
Mary saw it would have seemed almost pathetic to any one who understood;
and they had seemed pathetic to Lord Dauntrey. He was more or less in
her confidence, and still under her spell. It was for him, she had said,
that she wanted to secure a new paying-guest who had plenty of money to
put into the "system," and who loved gambling better than anything
else. He had helped Eve and the codfish decorate both drawing-room and
dining-room for Christmas, in order that Mary might take a fancy to the
place, and consent to come as a boarder. There were a good many pine
branches pinned on to curtains and stuck into huge, ugly Japanese vases,
a few wreaths hiding d