he refused
him, he would look a fool.

Meanwhile the sweep, sweep of Madeline's dress as she passed down the
stairs was drawing nearer, and in another instant she was in the room.
She was beautifully dressed in silver-grey silk, plentifully trimmed
with black lace, and cut square back and front so as to show her rounded
shoulders. She wore no ornaments, being one of the few women who are
able to dispense with them, unless indeed a red camellia pinned in the
front of her dress can be called an ornament. Bottles, shivering with
shame and doubt behind his curtain, marked that red camellia, and
wondered of what it reminded him.

Then in a flash it all came back, the scene of years and years ago--the
verandah in far-away Natal, with himself sitting on it, an open letter
in his hand and staring with all his eyes at the camellia bush covered
with bloom before him. It seemed a bad omen to him--that camellia in
Madeline's bosom. Next second she was speaking.

"Oh, Sir Eustace, I owe you a thousand apologies. You must have been
here for quite ten minutes, for I heard the front door bang when you
came. But my poor little girl Effie is ill with a sore throat which has
made her feverish, and she absolutely refused to go to sleep unless she
had my hand to hold."

"Lucky Effie," said Sir Eustace, with his politest bow; "I am sure I can
understand her fancy."

At the moment he was holding Madeline's hand himself, and gave emphasis
to his words by communicating the gentlest possible pressure to it as
he let it fall. But knowing his habits, she did not take much notice.
Comparative strangers when Sir Eustace shook hands with them were
sometimes in doubt whether he was about to propose to them or to make a
remark upon the weather. Alas! it had always been the weather.

"I come as a man of business besides, and men of business are accustomed
to being kept waiting," he went on.

"You are really very good, Sir Eustace, to take so much trouble about my
affairs."

"It is a pleasure, Lady Croston."

"Ah, Sir Eustace, you do not expect me to believe that," laughed
the radiant creature at his side. "But if you only knew how I detest
lawyers, and what you spare me by the trouble you take, I am sure you
would not grudge me your time."

"Do not talk of it, Lady Croston. I would do a great deal more than that
for you; in fact," here he dropped his voice a little, "there are few
things that I would not do for you, _Madeline_."

She rais