the orgy of mine."

"Stella!" protested Tommy, flushing. "I hate to hear you talking like
that!"

Stella laughed a little, softly, as though at the vagaries of a child.
"Poor Tommy!" she said. "What it is to be so young!"

"I'd sooner be a babe in arms than a cynic," said Tommy bluntly.

CHAPTER III

THE TRIUMPH

Lady Harriet's lorgnettes were brought piercingly to bear upon the
bride-elect that night, and her thin, refined features never relaxed
during the operation. She was looking upon such youth and loveliness as
seldom came her way; but the sight gave her no pleasure. She deemed it
extremely unsuitable that Stella should dance at all on the eve of her
wedding, and when she realized that nearly every man in the room was
having his turn, her disapproval by no means diminished. She wondered
audibly to one after another of her followers what Captain Dacre was
about to permit such a thing. And when Monck--Everard Monck of all
people who usually avoided all gatherings at the Club and had never been
known to dance if he could find any legitimate means of excusing
himself--waltzed Stella through the throng, her indignation amounted
almost to anger. The mess had yielded to the last man.

"I call it almost brazen," she said to Mrs. Burton, the Major's wife.
"She flaunts her unconventionality in our faces."

"A grave mistake," agreed Mrs. Burton. "It will not make us think any
the more highly of her when she is married."

"I am in two minds about calling on her," declared Lady Harriet. "I am
very doubtful as to the advisability of inviting any one so obviously
unsuitable into our inner circle. Of course Mrs. Ralston," she raised
her long pointed chin upon the name, "will please herself in the matter.
She will probably be the first to try and draw her in, but what Mrs.
Ralston does and what I do are two very different things. She is not
particular as to the society she keeps, and the result is that her
opinion is very justly regarded as worthless."

"Oh, quite," agreed Mrs. Burton, sending an obviously false smile in the
direction of the lady last named who was approaching them in the company
of Mrs. Ermsted, the Adjutant's wife, a little smart woman whom Tommy
had long since surnamed "The Lizard."

Mrs. Ralston, the surgeon's wife, had once been a pretty girl, and there
were occasions still on which her prettiness lingered like the gleams of
a fading sunset. She had a diffident manner in society, but y