fect: a stout
and determined matron planted like James Fitz-James upon his rock; a
tall youth with salad raised aloft as he turned to make his escape; the
perspiring face of some bewildered darkey, who could have found ample
use for the hands of a Briareus in the stress of conflicting orders.
Leigh turned to his companion with an enquiring glance.

"Will you allow me to forage for you, Miss Wycliffe?"

She shook her head. "Not yet, at any rate," she answered. "What a
spectacle! We might step into the conservatory and rest awhile."

She led the way through a near-by door into the vistas of greenness
beyond. There she paused from time to time to call his attention to
some rare plant, to lift some blossom to her face, and then went on
with the assurance of one entirely at home in her surroundings.
Through the thick branches Leigh caught more than one glimpse of a
white dress, and heard an occasional ripple of youthful merriment. The
vision of one of his students hurrying down a parallel aisle with
spoils from the table gave him a humorous sense of fellow feeling.

At length they found a seat of twisted branches, screened by a row of
palms. From the hallway of the house the scraping of the violins came
intermittently, like the sound of crickets in a distant field, so faint
that they could also hear the puffing of the breeze through a raised
panel in the slanting roof of glass above their heads. It seemed as if
the wonderful Indian Summer night were trying to steal in among the
guests through that small opening, to bid them be still. To look up at
that vitreous, transparent roof was like gazing into the enchantment of
a witch's mirror, so imminent was the mysterious depth of the night
beyond. Miss Wycliffe emitted the ghost of a sigh, as if to express
her relief and sense of escape, perhaps her weariness. Leigh,
following her glance upward, caught sight of a solitary, brilliant star
peeping through the triangular aperture, and reflected with keen
appreciation that it was the planet Venus. There was an opportunity in
this chance apparition, of which, however, he did not avail himself.
It was true that she had drawn his eyes down from the stars to gaze
into her own, and that the planet upon which they then looked together
had been given the name of the goddess of love. These facts,
beautifully coincident as they seemed to him, would not bear expression
in words. She would think he was making conventional love t