final arrangements.

Jeff appeared a few minutes later, clad in black but not in evening
dress. His eyes dwelt upon his wife for a moment or two before he
addressed her.

"Do you mind being in the parlour when they come in?"

She looked up at him with a smile which she knew to be forced. "Are you
sure I shan't be one too many, Jeff?"

"Quite," said Jeff.

There was no appealing against that, and she accompanied him without
further words.

Jim Dawlish was standing by the parlour door, admiring his handiwork. He
nudged Jeff as he went by, and was rewarded by Jeff's heaviest scowl.

A minute later, to Doris's mingled relief and dread, came the sounds of
the first arrival.

This proved to be a Mr. Griggs and his son, a horsey young man, whom she
vaguely knew by sight, having encountered him when following the hounds.
Mr. Griggs was a jolly old farmer, with a somewhat convivial
countenance. He shook her warmly by the hand, and asked her how she
liked being married.

Doris was endeavouring to reply to this difficult question as airily as
possible, when three more of Jeff's friends made their appearance, and
were brought up by Jeff in a group for introduction, thereby relieving
her of the obligation.

The party was now complete, and they all sat down to supper in varying
degrees of shyness. Doris worked hard to play her part as hostess, but
it was certainly no light task. Two of the last-comers were brothers of
the name of Chubb, and from neither of these could she extract more than
one word at a time. The third, Farmer Locke, was of the aggressive,
bulldog type, and he very speedily asserted himself. He seemed, indeed,
somewhat inclined to browbeat her, loudly arguing her slightest remark
after a fashion which she found decidedly exasperating, but presently
discovered to be his invariable habit with everyone. He flatly
contradicted even Jeff, but she was pleased to hear Jeff bluntly hold
his own, and secretly admired him for the achievement.

On the whole, the meal was not quite so much of an ordeal as she had
anticipated, and she was just beginning to congratulate herself upon
this fact when she discovered that young Griggs was ogling her with most
unmistakable familiarity whenever she glanced his way. She at once cut
him pointedly and with supreme disdain, only to find his father, who
was seated on her right, doing exactly the same thing.

Furious indignation entered her sore soul at this second discovery, an