er with gratitude and affection; that he should be at this
place, on this special occasion, swept away dark things from his path.
It was as if it were stated without words that a conservative man of the
world, who knew things as they were, having means of reaching truths,
vouched for him and placed his dignity and firmness at his side.

And there was the gladness at the sight of him. It was an overpoweringly
strong thing. She had never known anything like it. She had not seen
him since Nigel's return, and here he was, and she knew that her life
quickened in her because they were together in the same room. He had
come to them and said a few courteous words, but he had soon gone away.
At first she wondered if it was because of Nigel, who at the time was
making himself rather ostentatiously amiable to her. Afterwards she saw
him dancing, talking, being presented to people, being, with a tactful
easiness, taken care of by his host and hostess, and Lord Westholt. She
was struck by the graceful magic with which this tactful ease surrounded
him without any obviousness. The Dunholms had given a lead, as Lady
Alanby had said, and the rest were following it and ignoring intervals
with reposeful readiness. It was wonderfully well done. Apparently
there had been no past at all. All began with this large young man,
who, despite his Viking type, really looked particularly well in evening
dress. Lady Alanby held him by her chair for some time, openly enjoying
her talk with him, and calling up Tommy, that they might make friends.

After a while, Betty said to herself, he would come and ask for a dance.
But he did not come, and she danced with one man after another. Westholt
came to her several times and had more dances than one. Why did the
other not come? Several times they whirled past each other, and when
it occurred they looked--both feeling it an accident--into each other's
eyes.

The strong and strange thing--that which moves on its way as do birth
and death, and the rising and setting of the sun--had begun to move in
them. It was no new and rare thing, but an ancient and common one--as
common and ancient as death and birth themselves; and part of the law
as they are. As it comes to royal persons to whom one makes obeisance at
their mere passing by, as it comes to scullery maids in royal kitchens,
and grooms in royal stables, as it comes to ladies-in-waiting and the
women who serve them, so it had come to these two who had been