had been obliged to go at
the beginning of the last experiment. Agnes, torn between her interest
in what was going on and her desire to get back to her mother, had at
last hurriedly accepted this Mrs. Sherwood's offer of a seat in her
carriage, imagining that her sister would want to stay a good deal
later, and relying on Lady Charlotte's promise that she should be safely
put into a hansom.

'I must go,' said Rose, putting her hand to her head. 'How tiring this
is! How long did it take, Mr. Flaxman?'

'Exactly three minutes,' he said, his gaze fixed upon her with an
expression that only Lady Helen noticed.

'So little! Good-night, Lady Charlotte!' and giving her hand first to
her hostess then to Mr. Flaxman's bewildered sister, she moved away into
the crowd.

'Hugh, of course you are going down with her?' exclaimed Lady Charlotte
under her breath. 'You must. I promised to see her safely off the
premises.'

He stood immovable. Lady Helen with a reproachful look made a step
forward, but he caught her arm.

'Don't spoil sport,' he said, in a tone which, amid the hum of
discussion caused by the experiment, was heard only by his aunt and
sister.

They looked at him--the one amazed, the other grimly observant--and
caught a slight significant motion of the head towards Langham's distant
figure.

Langham came up and made his farewells. As he turned his back, Lady
Helen's large astonished eyes followed him to the door.

'Oh, Hugh!' was all she could say as they came back to her brother.

'Never mind, Nellie,' he whispered, touched by the bewildered sympathy
of her look; 'I will tell you all about it to-morrow. I have not been
behaving well, and am not particularly pleased with myself. But for her
it is all right. Poor, pretty little thing!'

And he walked away into the thick of the conversation.

Downstairs the hall was already full of people waiting for their
carriages. Langham, hurrying down, saw Rose coming out of the
cloak-room, muffled up in brown furs, a pale child-like fatigue in her
looks which set his heart beating faster than ever.

'Miss Leyburn, how are you going home?'

'Will you ask for a hansom, please?'

'Take my arm,' he said, and she clung to him through the crush till they
reached the door.

Nothing but private carriages were in sight. The street seemed blocked,
a noisy tumult of horses and footmen and shouting men with lanterns.
Which of them suggested, 'Shall we walk a few steps?' At a