cratic bearing of his
masters.

"At ten o'clock, your Ladyship. To where? To London! That's a long
journey to take at night. And the car will call at the inn first to pick
up his Lordship's luggage. Oh, I see, my Lady. I thought at first that
your Ladyship was going."

"I am," she corrected with quiet dignity. "Lord Taborley and I are going
on an errand of great importance. I don't want this talked about. You
understand? And who'll be driving? Witherall! Then warn Witherall to
keep silent."

When the butler had withdrawn, she turned to Tabs. "I'm breaking all my
precedents for you. I couldn't have told him, if I hadn't had you to
keep me in countenance. He looked so shocked that he made me feel as if
it were you and I, instead of Terry, who were doing the eloping. I'm
sure that's what he thought. There'll be gossip. I shall have to pay the
piper; but I'm too happy to-night to look ahead."

"It hadn't occurred to me----" Tabs hesitated. "I've been unpardonably
inconsiderate. I see it now--you'll be what they call compromised. In
that case, it will be wiser----"

"It won't." She bent towards him laughing. Her pearls, nestling in the
white cleft of her bosom, gleamed dully, shaken by her quiet merriment.
In the short time that he had known her, she had become extraordinarily
girlish--almost girlish enough to put back the hands of time for the
proper man. "It won't. It won't be wiser. It's never wiser to turn your
back on happiness. I'd dare anything to-night. You've invited me; you
can't wriggle out."

"If that's how you feel----" He checked himself. Her mischief warned
him. Instinctively he knew that she was about to ask precisely how he
thought she felt. He cancelled what he had intended saying and
substituted, "It's an ill-wind that blows nobody any good. And it's poor
Terry we have to thank for this chance of being together a little
longer!"

"Is it a chance? You're not bored? You do want me?"

He raised his eyes slowly. Her pain had startled him. Up to that moment
he hadn't been awake to how utterly he had come to want her. For an
instant he had a glimpse of the emptiness of life, should he find
himself deprived of her comradeship.

"You didn't need to ask me that!" he said quietly. "And now it's my turn
to be inquisitive. Does it make you glad to hear me own that I want
you?"

He watched her color rise. It was like the elfin tiptoeing of her spirit
behind the white transparent walls of her flesh. It cli