t he was not seriously under the ban of her displeasure.
"I?" he echoed, disingenuously.

"She began by taking a great fancy to you," she went on, "that night on
the tower, but you simply refused to pay any attention to her. And
to-night you behaved in the same manner. When you came and sat beside
us, she regarded it as quite a romantic little event."

"She has a husband, has n't she?" he questioned bluntly.

"Yes, but she still indulges fancies for 'stunning young men.'"

"Then Mr. Parr does n't answer to that description, I suppose?" he
queried.

"Mr. Parr is more stunned than stunning," she achieved, quick as a
flash.

"I don't wonder at it," he said, laughing heartily. "I seem to see the
poor fellow sunk in a coma of marital despair."

"This is extremely wicked and ungrateful talk in both of us," she
murmured, "and I shall encourage it no further."

Leigh was fairly intoxicated by Miss Wycliffe's manner toward him. She
had never been so frankly sweet before, and he had never seen her as
radiant as now. She had the air of one filled with a mischievous
impulse, which she restrained with an effort. A suggestion of daring
lurked in her momentary sidelong glance, and awoke in him a responsive
exhilaration. To other eyes that watched them curiously she appeared
to assume a certain proprietary right. If she introduced him to this
one or that, if they ran into other groups from time to time, she
contrived with exquisite skill to make these interruptions temporary
and to keep him to herself.

Their progress, though he was but dimly aware of it, was something of a
triumphal one for himself. He was sufficiently striking in appearance
when alone to attract attention, and Miss Wycliffe's evident partiality
now made him a special mark for speculative glances. He began to gain
an appreciation of her absolutely entrenched position in that society
in which the older women were inclined to pet her and the older men
indulged in gallant little speeches. As for her contemporaries, they
paid her tribute in their kind.

In this way they participated in the slow movement that for some time
had been turning toward the dining-room. Through the open door they
saw the solid phalanx of earnest eaters that surged about the tables.
To disinterested eyes the sight might have appeared one of agonised
appetition, in which, as in battle, some particular person or movement
arrested the attention for a moment from the general ef