n it. But the
next moment, catching sight of Neville's furious face, his opinion
wavered.

Valerie said laughingly to Rita: "They'll never grow up, these two--"
nodding her head toward Ogilvy and Annan. And to Neville carelessly--too
carelessly: "Will you have a little more tea, Kelly dear?"

Her attitude was amiable and composed; her voice clear and
unembarrassed. There may have been a trifle more colour in her cheeks;
but what preoccupied Rita was in her eyes--a fleeting glimpse of
something that suddenly concentrated all of Rita's attention upon the
girl across the table.

For a full minute she sat looking at Valerie who seemed pleasantly
unconscious of her inspection; then almost stealthily she shifted her
gaze to Neville.

Gladys and her kitten came purring around in quest of cream; Rita
gathered them into her arms and caressed them and fed them bits of
cassava and crumbs of cake. She was unusually silent that afternoon.
John Burleson tried to interest her with heavy information of various
kinds, but she only smiled absently at that worthy man. Sam Ogilvy and
Harry Annan attempted to goad her into one of those lively exchanges of
banter in which Rita was entirely capable of taking care of herself.
But her smile was spiritless and non-combative; and finally they let her
alone and concentrated their torment upon Valerie, who endured it with
equanimity and dangerously sparkling eyes, and an occasional lightening
retort which kept those young men busy, especially when the epigram was
in Latin--which hurt their feelings.

She had just furnished them with a sample of this classical food for
thought when the door-bell rang and Neville looked up in astonishment to
see Jose Querida come in.

"Hello," he said, springing up with friendly hand outstretched--"this is
exceedingly good of you, Querida. You have not been here in a very long
while."

Querida's smile showed his teeth; he bowed to Valerie and to Rita, bowed
to the men in turn, and smiled on Neville.

"In excuse I must plead work, my dear fellow--a poor plea and poorer
excuse for the pleasure lost in seeing you--" he nodded to the
others--"and in missing many agreeable little gatherings--similar to
this, I fancy?"

There was a rising inflection to his voice which made the end of his
little speech terminate as a question; and he looked to Valerie for his
answer.

"Yes," she said, "we usually have tea in Kelly's studio. And you may
have some now, if you w