uch rallying was easier than sympathetic attention.

"His brother Jack says he'd like to meet you."

Jenny laughed derisively.

"I thought you weren't giving your Danby away with a pound of nothing.
Do you remember when I used to call Jack Danby 'Tin Ribs the Second,'
and you used to get so ratty?"

"Well, what a liberty," said Irene, laughing at the now almost forgotten
insult.

Towards the dripping fog-stained close of November Arthur and Jack Danby
arrived from Paris and, tall as lamp-posts, waited for the two girls at
the top of the court in Jermyn Street. It did not strike Jenny at the
time that the appointment seemed girt with intrigue, as if whispers had
gone to the making of it, whispers that voiced a deceitful purpose in
her friend. Jenny had often arraigned the methods of Mrs. Dale and
denounced the encouragement of Winnie and Irene in any association whose
profit transcended its morality. But she never really understood Irene,
and her teasing was a sign of this. Under the circumstances of lovers
reunited, she accepted her place at Jack Danby's side without suspicion;
and was only dimly aware of the atmosphere of satisfaction which clung
to the two brothers and her friend.

In the bronzed glow of the Trocadero grill-room she had an opportunity
of studying the two men, and because the result of this was a decided
preference for Jack, she lost any suspicion of a plot, and appeared
almost to enjoy his company.

All Arthur Danby's features, even his ears, seemed excessively pointed,
while his thinness and length of limb accentuated this peaked effect of
countenance. His complexion had preserved the clearness of youth, but
had become waxy from dissipation, and in certain lights was feathered
with fine lines that looked like scratches on a smooth surface. His
eyelids were puffy and tinged slightly round the rims with a redness
which was the more obvious from the vivid light blue eyes it surrounded.
A certain diabolic strangeness redeemed the whole effect from mere
unpleasantness. Jack Danby was not so tall as his brother, and his
features were less sharply pointed, although they were as clearly
defined. He had similar eyes of almost cobalt blue when contrasted with
the dead whiteness of a skin that gave the impression of being powdered.
The younger brother's eyes preserved more fire and seemed under the
influence of a suggestive conversation to be lighted up from behind in a
way that sent a sudden breathless