had preceded it.

Lady Luce was, perhaps, the most quiet and least talkative; but she sat
and listened to Drake's stories and badinage, with a smile in her eyes
and her lips slightly apart.

In a few hours he would speak the word which would make her the future
Countess of Angleford!

The ladies lingered at the table rather longer than usual, for Drake's
stories had suggested others to the other men, and his high spirits had
awakened those of the persons near him. But Lady Angleford rose at last,
and the ladies filed off to the drawing-room.

The men closed up their ranks, and Drake sent the wine round briskly.
There was no dance to cut short the pleasant "after-the-ladies-have-gone"
time; and they sat long over their wine, so that it was nearly ten
o'clock when Drake, with his hand on the decanter near him, said:

"No more, anybody? Sure? Turfleigh, you will, surely!"

But the old man knew that he had had enough. He, too, was excited, and
under a strain, and he rose rather unsteadily and shook his head.

"No, thanks. Er--er--I fancy we've rather punished that claret of yours
to-night, my dear boy."

"It's a sad heart that never rejoices!" Drake retorted, with a laugh
which sounded so reckless that Wolfer glanced at him with surprise.

"We'd better have a cigarette in the smoking room before we go into the
drawing-room," said Drake, and he led the way.

As they went, talking and laughing, together across the hall, a
white-faced woman leaned over the balustrade above, and watched them.

The other servants were in the servants' hall, enjoying themselves; the
gentlemen were in the smoking room, and the ladies in the drawing-room.
She was alone in the upper part of the house, which was so quiet and
still that the sound of a clock, in one of the rooms, striking ten was
like that of a church bell in her ears.

She started and pressed her hand to her heart, then stole to the window
on the back staircase, and, keeping behind the curtain, listened. Her
heart beat so loudly as to almost deafen her, but she heard a slight
noise outside, and something fell with a soft tap against the window
sill. It was the top of the ladder falling into its place.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Burden had switched off some of the electric lights in the
corridor--was, indeed, prepared to switch the remainder if any one
happened to come up--and she could just see a face through the window.
The sight of it almost made her scream, for the f