leneagle and Margravine
of Muscombe, her Majesty's dearest and most intimate friends. She will
surely be overjoyed when I announce their arrival."

Somehow Daphne could not share his certainty. Queen Selina had been
careful not to dwell too much, in her presence, on these aristocratic
acquaintances, and they certainly had not visited "Inglegarth" while she
had been an inmate of the household.

"If I were you, Baron," she said diplomatically, "I should send away all
these people before I told her Majesty. I am sure she would rather
welcome her friends in private."

He accepted the suggestion, cleared the hall, and bustled away, after
committing the still unconscious visitors to Daphne's care.

She found them laid side by side on couches in the vestibule, which was
a lofty chamber, panelled in ivory and ebony, with inset opals of
enormous size and a ceiling of dull silver. The Duchess was a short,
spare, grey-haired and rather homely-looking woman in a black
_demi-toilette_ with priceless old lace. Lady Muscombe was about
twenty-six, tall, with a beautiful figure and a pale, piquant face; she
wore a rose _charmeuse_ gown that scintillated with _paillettes_; her
luxuriant, but just then slightly dishevelled, chestnut hair was
confined in a sparkling band, from which drooped a crushed pink plume.

As they seemed on the point of awaking, Daphne, thinking that they would
probably prefer to do so unobserved, discreetly left them to themselves.

Lady Muscombe was the first to recover. She sat up, stretched her white
and shapely arms, and yawned widely, revealing her perfect teeth, as she
regarded the Duchess with sleepy brown eyes.

"I suppose you are the Duchess of Gleneagles?" she said. "And, if you
don't mind, I should rather like to know why you've brought me
here--wherever it is."

"I?" said the Duchess. "I've had nothing to do with bringing you. Don't
even know who you are--though you seem to have got hold of my name."

"Why, I married Muscombe--the Marquis, don't you know. I dare say you
knew before that I was Verity Stilton of the Vivacity. I was working my
way up to quite important parts. You may have seen me in some of them?"

"I have not had that advantage. I seldom visit a theatre, and when I
do----"

"You like to go and see something stuffy? _I_ know. And I expect you've
got quite a wrong idea of Musical Comedy. Most of us in the Chorus at
the Vivacity were ladies by birth. And we didn't mix with the ot