"You are not hurrying off, are you, Mr. Lessingham?" she asked. "I want
you to show me that new Patience."

"I shall be delighted."

Sir Henry turned slowly away. For a moment his face darkened as his eyes
met Lessingham's. He seemed about to speak but changed his mind.

"Well, good-by, every one," he called out. "I shall be back before
midnight if we don't get out."

"And if you do?" Nora cried.

"If we do, Heaven help the whiting!"

CHAPTER XV

"Of course, we're behaving shockingly, all three of us!" Philippa
declared, as she sipped her champagne and leaned back in her seat.

"You mean by coming to a place like this?" Lessingham queried, looking
around the crowded restaurant. "We are not, in that case, the only
sinners."

"I didn't mean the mere fact of being here," Philippa explained, "but
being here with you."

"I forgot," he said gloomily, "that I was such a black sheep."

"Don't be silly," she admonished. "You're nothing of the sort. But, of
course, we are skating on rather thin ice. If I had Henry to consider
in any way, if he had any sort of a career, perhaps I should be more
careful. As it is, I think I feel a little reckless lately. Dreymarsh
has got upon my nerves. The things that I thought most of in life seem
to have crumbled away."

"Ought I to be sorry?" he asked. "I am not."

"But why are you so unsympathetic?"

"Because I am waiting by your side to rebuild," he whispered.

A tall, bronzed young soldier with his arm in a sling, stopped before
their table, and Helen, after a moment's protest and a glance at
Philippa, moved away with him to the little space reserved for the
dancers.

"What a chaperon I am!" Philippa sighed. "I scarcely know anything about
the young man except his name and that he was in Dick's regiment."

"I did not hear it," Lessingham observed, "but I feel deeply grateful
to him. It is so seldom that I have a chance to talk to you alone like
this."

"It seems incredible that we have talked so long," Philippa said,
glancing at the watch upon her wrist. "I really feel now that I know all
about you--your school days, your college days, and your soldiering. You
have been very frank, haven't you?"

"I have nothing to conceal--from you," he replied. "If there is anything
more you want to know--"

"There is nothing," she interrupted uneasily.

"Perhaps you are wise," he reflected, "and yet some day, you know, you
will have to hear it all, over and over again