the card-table was concerned."

"Is that clock right?" asked Eleanor, whose eyes had been straying
restlessly towards the mantel-piece for some little time; "lunch is
usually so punctual in your establishment."

"Three minutes past the half-hour," exclaimed Mrs. Attray; "cook must be
preparing something unusually sumptuous in your honour. I am not in the
secret; I've been out all the morning, you know."

Eleanor smiled forgivingly. A special effort by Mrs. Attray's cook was
worth waiting a few minutes for.

As a matter of fact, the luncheon fare, when it made its tardy
appearance, was distinctly unworthy of the reputation which the justly-
treasured cook had built up for herself. The soup alone would have
sufficed to cast a gloom over any meal that it had inaugurated, and it
was not redeemed by anything that followed. Eleanor said little, but
when she spoke there was a hint of tears in her voice that was far more
eloquent than outspoken denunciation would have been, and even the
insouciant Ronald showed traces of depression when he tasted the rognons
Saltikoff.

"Not quite the best luncheon I've enjoyed in your house," said Eleanor at
last, when her final hope had flickered out with the savoury.

"My dear, it's the worst meal I've sat down to for years," said her
hostess; "that last dish tasted principally of red pepper and wet toast.
I'm awfully sorry. Is anything the matter in the kitchen, Pellin?" she
asked of the attendant maid.

"Well, ma'am, the new cook hadn't hardly time to see to things properly,
coming in so sudden--" commenced Pellin by way of explanation.

"The new cook!" screamed Mrs. Attray.

"Colonel Norridrum's cook, ma'am," said Pellin.

"What on earth do you mean? What is Colonel Norridrum's cook doing in my
kitchen--and where is my cook?"

"Perhaps I can explain better than Pellin can," said Ronald hurriedly;
"the fact is, I was dining at the Norridrums' yesterday, and they were
wishing they had a swell cook like yours, just for to-day and to-morrow,
while they've got some gourmet staying with them: their own cook is no
earthly good--well, you've seen what she turns out when she's at all
flurried. So I thought it would be rather sporting to play them at
baccarat for the loan of our cook against a money stake, and I lost,
that's all. I have had rotten luck at baccarat all this year."

The remainder of his explanation, of how he had assured the cooks that
the temporary transfer ha