r's scrutiny, drifted toward the dressing-table and began to
disturb the symmetry of the brushes and bottles laid out on it.

"Do your visitors know that I'm here?" Mrs. Lidcote suddenly went on.

"Do they--Of course--why, naturally," Leila rejoined, absorbed in
trying to turn the stopper of a salts-bottle.

"Then won't they think it odd if I don't appear?"

"Oh, not in the least, dearest. I assure you they'll _all_ understand."
Leila laid down the bottle and turned back to her mother, her face
alight with reassurance.

Mrs. Lidcote stood motionless, her head erect, her smiling eyes on her
daughter's. "Will they think it odd if I _do_?"

Leila stopped short, her lips half parted to reply. As she paused, the
colour stole over her bare neck, swept up to her throat, and burst into
flame in her cheeks. Thence it sent its devastating crimson up to her
very temples, to the lobes of her ears, to the edges of her eyelids,
beating all over her in fiery waves, as if fanned by some imperceptible
wind.

Mrs. Lidcote silently watched the conflagration; then she turned away
her eyes with a slight laugh. "I only meant that I was afraid it might
upset the arrangement of your dinner-table if I didn't come down. If you
can assure me that it won't, I believe I'll take you at your word and
go back to this irresistible sofa." She paused, as if waiting for her
daughter to speak; then she held out her arms. "Run off and dress,
dearest; and don't have me on your mind." She clasped Leila close,
pressing a long kiss on the last afterglow of her subsiding blush. "I do
feel the least bit overdone, and if it won't inconvenience you to have
me drop out of things, I believe I'll basely take to my bed and stay
there till your party scatters. And now run off, or you'll be late; and
make my excuses to them all."

VI

The Barkleys' visitors had dispersed, and Mrs. Lidcote, completely
restored by her two days' rest, found herself, on the following Monday
alone with her children and Miss Suffern.

There was a note of jubilation in the air, for the party had "gone
off" so extraordinarily well, and so completely, as it appeared, to the
satisfaction of Mrs. Lorin Boulger, that Wilbour's early appointment
to Rome was almost to be counted on. So certain did this seem that the
prospect of a prompt reunion mitigated the distress with which Leila
learned of her mother's decision to return almost immediately to
Italy. No one understood this decisi