eigh. They had left their hats and coats in the
check-room, and were following the lawyer's lead instinctively, as men
will in the mazes of a crowded place. At the same moment Littleford
held up his hand and the bishop's daughter indicated her presence and
her welcome by a beckoning motion of her napkin. All three men saw the
signal and accepted it.

Littleford's brow clouded slightly at sight of Leigh, and his greeting
of the young man was a shade less cordial than his greeting of the
other two. There were three men and two chairs, which was awkward, and
he was expecting only Swigart and Cobbens. Cardington was always
welcome, but the astronomer was still an outsider, and the present
excitement was one of peculiarly local interest. Had Leigh been a man
of means, Littleford would have commanded the waiter to find another
chair somewhere, even at the risk of being obliged to compress his
ample form against the wall; but now he retained his seat in deliberate
helplessness, hoping that the situation would presently be adjusted by
the tactful withdrawal of the only supernumerary of the party.
Unhappily for this hope, the supernumerary was not disposed to regard
himself as such. He may have known that Cobbens would have left his
hat outside had he intended to remain, but at all events, it needed
only Miss Wycliffe's smile of welcome to justify him in taking the
chair beside her.

Her acknowledgement of the lawyer's greeting was brief and perfunctory,
as if she forgot to masque her indifference; and just as unconsciously
she betrayed her partiality for the young astronomer by those minute
signals which a woman displays when off her guard. She swayed toward
him almost imperceptibly, and looked at him with content, as a woman
looks at the man she loves before she realises more than her desire to
have him near.

Cobbens began to apologise for himself and the judge. "I forgot that
of course we were expected at the club, when I promised to meet you
here; but it seems we are still on dress parade."

"Let me congratulate you," Mrs. Parr interposed, "for putting that
creature in his place."

"It was neat," Littleford commented, with appreciation.

Felicity glanced up from her conversation with Leigh to meet an
unmistakable desire for her judgment in the lawyer's eyes. The winning
prettiness of her manner, the transient glow, were gone in an instant,
to be replaced by an expression almost stony in its unhappiness.