lums."

Wilhelmina was still looking out of the window. Up the great avenue, in
and out amongst the tree trunks, but moving always with swift buoyant
footsteps towards the house, came a slim, dark figure, soberly dressed
in ill-fitting clothes. He walked with the swing of early manhood, his
head was thrown back, and he carried his hat in his hand. She leaned
forward to watch him more closely--he seemed to have associated himself
in some mysterious manner with the mocking words of Gilbert Deyes. Half
maliciously, she drew his attention to the swiftly approaching figure.

"Come, my friend of theories," she said mockingly. "There is a stranger
there, the young man who walks so swiftly. To which of your two orders
does he belong?"

Deyes looked out of the window--a brief, careless glance.

"To neither," he answered. "His time has not come yet. But he has the
makings of both."

CHAPTER III

FIRST BLOOD

A footman entered the room a few minutes later, and obedient, without a
doubt, to some previously given command, waited behind his mistress'
chair until a hand had been played. When it was over, she spoke to him
without turning her head.

"What is it, Perkins?" she asked.

He bent forward respectfully.

"There is a young gentleman here, madam, who wishes to see you most
particularly. He has no card, but he said that his name would not be
known to you."

"Tell him that I am engaged," Wilhelmina said. "He must give you his
name, and tell you what business he has come upon."

"Very good, madam!" the man answered, and withdrew.

He was back again before the next hand had been played. Once more he
stood waiting in respectful silence.

"Well?" his mistress asked.

"His name, madam, is Mr. Victor Macheson. He said that he would wait as
long as you liked, but he preferred telling you his business himself."

"I fancy that I know it," Wilhelmina answered. "You can show him in
here."

"Is it the young man, I wonder," Lady Peggy remarked, "who came up the
avenue as though he were walking on air?"

"Doubtless," Wilhelmina answered. "He is some sort of a missionary.
I had him shown in here because I thought his coming at all an
impertinence, and I want to make him understand it. You will probably
find him amusing, Mr. Deyes."

Gilbert Deyes shook his head quietly.

"There was a time," he murmured, "when the very word missionary was a
finger-post to the ridiculous. The comic papers rob us, however, of our