st as if he had done--or at the least had contemplated
doing--something outrageous, something for which he deserved the
punishment which was now being meted out to him. As he slowly approached
Miss Cronin he endeavoured resolutely to bear himself like a man who had
not proposed that day for Miss Van Tuyn's hand. But preposterously, Miss
Cronin's absurd misconception seemed to have power over his conscience,
and that again over his appearance and gait. He was fully aware, as he
went forward to convey Miss Van Tuyn's message, that he made a very poor
show of it. In fact, he was just then living up to Dick's description of
him as "the beard with the gentleman."

"Oh, Mr. Braybrooke," said Miss Cronin as he came up, "so you are here
with Beryl!"

"Yes; so I am here with Miss Van Tuyn!"

Miss Cronin exchanged a glance with Mrs. Clem Hodson.

"You didn't tell me when you called that you were taking her out to
tea!"

"No, I didn't!" said Braybrooke.

"This is my old schoolmate, Mrs. Clem Hodson. Suzanne, this is Mr.
Braybrooke, a friend of Beryl's."

Mrs. Clem Hodson bowed from the waist, and looked at Braybrooke with
the expression of one who knew a great deal more about him than his own
mother knew.

"This hotel overcharges," she said firmly.

"Really! I should have scarcely have thought--"

"There were two pieces of plum cake on the bill, and we only ate one."

"Oh, I've just remembered," said Miss Cronin, as if irradiated with
sudden light.

"What, dear?"

"I _did_ have two slices. One was before the muffin, while we were
waiting for it, and the other was after. And I only remembered the
second."

"In that case, dear, we've done the waiter an injustice and libelled the
hotel."

"I will make it all right if you will allow me," said Braybrooke almost
obsequiously. "I'm well known here. I will explain to the manager, a
most charming man."

He turned definitely to face Fanny Cronin.

"Miss Van Tuyn asked me to tell you what she wants."

"Indeed! Does she want something?"

"No. I mean she told me to ask you what you want."

Miss Cronin looked at Mrs. Clem Hodson, hesitated, and then made a very
definite rabbit's mouth.

"I don't know that I want anything, thank you, Mr. Braybrooke. But if
Beryl is going--she is not going?"

"I really don't know exactly."

"She hasn't finished her tea, perhaps?"

"I don't know for certain. But she asked me to tell you she wasn't
coming back yet"--the two old lad