intimacy at once. However, since Stella
was always uppermost in his thoughts, he did not test Mrs. Ross with any
more surprizing admissions.

On the night before the concert Mr. and Mrs. Merivale, Mrs. Ross, Alan
and Michael sat in the drawing-room, talking over the concert from every
point of view.

"Of course she'll be a success," said Mr. Merivale, and managed to
implicate himself as usual in a network of bad puns that demanded the
heartiest reprobation from his listeners.

"Dear little girl," said Mrs. Merivale placidly. "How nice it is to see
children doing things."

"Of course she'll be a success," Alan vowed. "You've only got to look at
her to see that. By gad, what an off-drive she would have had, if she'd
only been a boy."

Michael looked at Alan quickly. This was the first time he had ever
heard him praise a girl of his own accord. He made up his mind to ask
Stella when her concert was over how Alan had impressed her.

"Dear Michael," said Mrs. Ross earnestly, "you must not worry about
Stella. Don't you remember how years ago I said she would be a great
pianist? And you were so amusing about it, because you would insist that
you didn't like her playing."

"Nor I did," said Michael in laughing defence of himself at eight years
old. "I used to think it was the most melancholy noise on earth.
Sometimes I think so now, when Stella wraps herself up in endless
scales. By Jove," he suddenly exclaimed, "what's the time?"

"Half-past eight nearly. Why?" Alan asked.

"I forgot to write and tell Viner to come. It's not very late. I think
I'll go over to Notting Hill now, and ask him. I haven't been to see him
much lately, and he was always awfully decent to me."

Mr. Viner was reading in his smoke-hung room.

"Hullo," he said. "You've not been near me for almost a year."

"I know," said Michael apologetically. "I feel rather a brute. Some time
I'll tell you why."

Then suddenly Michael wondered if the priest knew about Lord Saxby, and
he felt shy of him. He felt that he could not talk intimately to him
until he had told him about the circumstances of his birth.

"Is that what's been keeping you away?" asked the priest. "Because, let
me tell you, I've known all about you for some years. And look here,
Michael, don't get into your head that you've got to make this sort of
announcement every time you form a new friendship."

"Oh, that wasn't the reason I kept away," said Michael. "But I don't
want to talk