arrangements must be made quickly to avoid the burden of it
in London. In the end, it was arranged that Mrs. Fane and Stella and
Alan should go to Scotland, where Michael promised to join them, if he
could get away from London.

"If you can get away!" Stella scoffed. "What rot you do talk."

But Michael was not to be teased out of his determination to stay where
he was, and in three or four days he said good-bye to the others
northward bound, waving to them from the steps of 173 Cheyne Walk on
which already the August sun was casting a heavy heat untempered by the
stagnant sheen of the Thames.

That evening Michael went again to the Orient Promenade; but there was
no sign of Lily, and it seemed likely that she had gone away from London
for a while. After the performance he visited the Cafe d'Orange in
Leicester Square. He had never been there yet, but he had often noticed
the riotous exodus at half-past twelve, and he argued from the quality
of the frequenters who stood wrangling on the pavement that the Cafe
d'Orange would be a step lower than any of the night-resorts he had so
far attended. He scarcely expected to find Lily here. Indeed, he was
rather inclined to think that she was someone's mistress and that
Drake's view of her at the Orient did not argue necessarily that she had
yet sunk to the promiscuous livelihood of the Promenade.

Downstairs at the Cafe d'Orange was rather more like a corner of hell
than Michael had anticipated. The tobacco smoke which could not rise in
these subterranean airs hung in a blue murk round the gaudy hats and
vile faces, while from the roof the electric lamps shone dazzlingly down
and made a patchwork of light and shade and color. In a corner left by
the sweep of the stairs a quartet of unkempt musicians in seamy tunics
of beer-stained scarlet frogged with debilitated braid were grinding out
ragtime. The noisy tune in combination with the talking and laughter,
the chink of glasses and the shouted acknowledgments of the waiters made
such a din that Michael stood for a moment in confusion, debating the
possibility of one more person threading his way through the serried
tables to a seat.

There were three arched recesses at the opposite end of the room, and in
one of these he thought he could see a table with a vacant place. So
paying no heed to the women who hailed him on the way he moved across
and sat down. A waiter pounced upon him voraciously for orders, and soon
with an un