ebs he asked to lead.
Where even was the speaker of an hour ago? Chat of Ascot and of
Newmarket; discussion with Lady Selina or with his left-hand neighbour
of country-house "sets," with a patter of names which sounded in her
scornful ear like a paragraph from the _World_; above all, a general air
of easy comradeship, which no one at this table, at any rate, seemed
inclined to dispute, with every exclusiveness and every amusement of the
"idle rich," whereof--in the popular idea--he was held to be one of the
very particular foes!--

No doubt, as the dinner moved on, this first impression changed
somewhat. She began to distinguish notes that had at first been lost
upon her. She caught the mocking, ambiguous tone under which she herself
had so often fumed; she watched the occasional recoil of the women about
him, as though they had been playing with some soft-pawed animal, and
had been suddenly startled by the gleam of its claws. These things
puzzled, partly propitiated her. But on the whole she was restless and
hostile. How was it possible--from such personal temporising--such a
frittering of the forces and sympathies--to win the single-mindedness
and the power without which no great career is built? She wanted to talk
with him--reproach him!

"Well--I must go--worse luck," said Wharton at last, laying down his
napkin and rising. "Lane, will you take charge? I will join you outside
later."

"If he ever finds us!" said her neighbour to Marcella. "I never saw the
place so crowded. It is odd how people enjoy these scrambling meals in
these very ugly rooms."

Marcella, smiling, looked down with him over the bare coffee-tavern
place, in which their party occupied a sort of high table across the
end, while two other small gatherings were accommodated in the space
below.

"Are there any other rooms than this?" she asked idly.

"One more," said a young man across the table, who had been introduced
to her in the dusk outside, and had not yet succeeded in getting her to
look at him, as he desired. "But there is another big party there
to-night--Raeburn--you know," he went on innocently, addressing the
minister; "he has got the Winterbournes and the Macdonalds--quite a
gathering--rather an unusual thing for him."

The minister glanced quickly at his companion. But she had turned to
answer a question from Lady Selina, and thenceforward, till the party
rose, she gave him little opportunity of observing her.

As the outward-