. And then Morris--how would Lady Wychcote behave to
Morris, should they be thrown together? How, indeed, would Morris behave
to Lady Wychcote? Sophy hoped ardently that he would not go with her.
She hoped it, not only on this account, but because it seemed dreadful
to her that she should appear in London again, after five years of
absence, as the wife of another man. She had left England in the dignity
of a great tragedy; she would return to it as the wife of an American
millionaire, "ages younger than she is, my dear." And Morris--how would
Morris seem, thus transplanted? He had been to England before, of
course; but he knew few of the people among whom her lot there had been
cast. His English acquaintances were all of the ultra sporting sort.

She tried to fancy him at lunch or dinner with the Arundels. What would
he make of that political and literary atmosphere?

But what filled her with the keenest dread of all, when facing the
possibility of Morris's going with her, was the fact of his constant
drinking. Here in America it was the custom of his class and set. But
there--no. Some Englishmen were "hard drinkers," certainly--but it was
the exception and not the rule.

But then again--perhaps all this anxiety on her part was quite useless.
Most probably Morris would dislike the idea of spending a month in
England, just when polo on Long Island was at its best. She determined
to put it to him that evening. She did so as they drove home from the
opera.

He lowered at first, then suddenly became amiable. Sophy's heart sank.

"By Jove!" he exclaimed, laughing. "Now that I think of it, I rather
like the idea. It will be bully fun showing you off to those highbrow
Britishers as Mrs. Morris Loring of New York!-- I've had it rubbed in on
the raw often enough, that you were formerly 'the Honourable Mrs. Cecil
Chesney.'"

* * * * *

They sailed for England on the last day of April. Loring was in his best
mood. Sophy felt as if in a queer spiritual catalepsy. It was as if
Destiny had clutched her in a numbing grasp and bundled her hither and
thither against her will.

Lady Wychcote was settled in her house in Carlton Gardens for the
Season, and the morning after Sophy's arrival she took Bobby to see his
grandmother. Her ladyship's face had aged somewhat, but her figure was
as young as ever. She came forward with hand extended, and said "How
d'ye do?" as though she and Sophy had parted o