e dear, how goes it?" he
enquired. Then looking at her keenly he added, "Why, you're looking
much better."

Patricia smiled, conscious that the improvement in her looks was not a
little due to Lady Peggy and her bright chatter.

"You've become such a gad-about, Mr. Triggs, that you forget poor me,"
she said.

"Oh no, he doesn't!" broke in Lady Peggy, "he's always talking about
you. Whenever I try to make love to him he always drags you in. I've
really come to hate you, Patricia, because you seem to come between me
and all my love affairs. Oh! I wish we could find Peter," cried Lady
Peggy suddenly, "that would complete the party."

Patricia hoped fervently that they would not come across Bowen. She
saw that it would make the situation extremely awkward.

"And now we must dash off for lunch," cried Lady Peggy, "or we shall be
late and Daddy will be cross." She shook hands with Mr. Triggs, blew a
kiss at Lady Tanagra and, before Patricia knew it, she was walking with
Lady Peggy and Elton in the direction of Curzon Street.

Patricia was in some awe of meeting the Duke of Gayton. Hitherto she
had encountered only the smaller political fry, friends and
acquaintances of Mr. Bonsor, who had always treated her as a secretary.
The Duke had been in the first Coalition Ministry, but had been forced
to retire on account of a serious illness.

"Look whom I've caught!" cried Lady Peggy as she bubbled into the
dining-room, where some twelve or fourteen guests were in process of
seating themselves at the table. "Look whom I've caught! Daddy," she
addressed herself to a small clean-shaven man, with beetling eyebrows
and a broad, intellectual head. "It's the captor of Peter the Hermit."

The Duke smiled and shook hands with Patricia.

"You must come and sit by me," he said in particularly sweet and
well-modulated voice, which seemed to give the lie to the somewhat
stern and searching appearance of his eyes. "Peter is a great friend
of mine."

Patricia was conscious of flushed cheeks as she took her seat next to
the Duke. Later she discovered that these Sunday luncheons were always
strictly informal, no order of precedence being observed. Young and
old were invited, grave and gay. The talk was sometimes frivolous,
sometimes serious. Sunday was, in the Duke's eyes, a day of rest, and
conversation must follow the path of least resistance.

Whilst the other guests were seating themselves, Patricia looked round
th