traordinarily near."

Mrs. Delarayne was silent. She was obviously making an effort not to
appear too highly gratified by the news she had heard, and was regarding
Denis thoughtfully,--her eyebrows slightly raised, and her fingers
drumming lightly on the arms of her chair.

"Well, then," she repeated, "I'm afraid that's settled,--isn't it, Sir
Joseph?"

Another report was heard, and Sir Joseph rose.

"I wonder what the deuce they're doing!" he exclaimed going to the
window.

"Probably got a stray rabbit, or a hare, on their way," suggested Denis.

Sir Joseph turned from the window to face his secretary.

"That's very odd. So she refused you?" he said.

"Absolutely."

"But you shouldn't despair over one refusal," he exclaimed, casting a
glance full of meaning at Mrs. Delarayne. "A man doesn't lie down under
one reverse of that sort."

He chuckled, and glanced backwards and forwards, first at his secretary
and then at Mrs. Delarayne, hoping she would understand his profound
implication.

"You must 'ave more perseverance," he added.

Denis remembered the word "vulgar." He remembered the concentrated fury
and contempt that the flapper had put into the expression, and he
instinctively felt that it was hopeless.

"I think what I should like to do," he said, "is to leave here, if you
will allow me to; finish my holiday elsewhere, and see whether,
meanwhile, a change may not come over Leonetta. If it doesn't, then
there's an end of it."

"You mean to leave here at once?" enquired the baronet.

"Yes," interposed Mrs. Delarayne; and then she proceeded to explain to
Sir Joseph what Denis meant, and declared his scheme to be eminently
dignified and proper. It met with her entire approval.

A discussion followed as to the best way of explaining to the others the
reason of Denis's sudden departure, and various suggestions were made.
Sir Joseph volunteered to be able to account for the young man's absence
on the score of business. Denis himself inclined to the view that some
family trouble would provide the best excuse. His mother might be ill.
But Mrs. Delarayne, anxious above all to avoid the sort of explanation
that might provoke dangerous sympathies for Denis in any female heart,
agreed that a business excuse would be best.

It was therefore decided that Sir Joseph would receive a sudden summons
from London, that Denis would be dispatched to attend to the business,
and that what happened after that the rest o