the air was sweet with
the smell of roses from the room behind them as well as from the garden
below.

Struther talked little, Brigit, with her usual indifference to others,
almost not at all, and as Joyselle's self-command rose only to the
height of an occasional reply to the Spectre's monologue, which was not
of an arresting nature, the party on the balcony was very quiet.

Brigit suffered tortures as she sat watching Joyselle. It was, then, as
she had feared. He was going to be strong and make everyone miserable.

If she had been asked to propose any kind of a plan for the future, her
answer would have been, when denuded of side issues and fantasy, simply
that she could see nothing better than simple drifting. As yet she could
not anticipate, and it roused in her a kind of jealousy that Joyselle
had so soon begun to think of Theo. His love for her should have dimmed
all consideration for his son--it should have been _she_ who suggested
some means of hurting the boy as little as possible.

But she could see that Joyselle was going to be what she called in the
frankness she allowed herself, tiresome about that wretched boy of his.

She also knew that Joyselle would be anything but pleased by her
resolution to leave home and live by herself. His respect for certain
laws were an integral part of his nature, and she knew that he would not
approve of her deserting what he was certain to call the maternal roof.
This curious element of Philistinism in his otherwise Bohemian nature
was very perplexing, and she told herself, as she looked at him while he
gravely listened to the ghostly Lady Sophy, that her troubles were in
reality only just beginning.

"M. Joyselle," she asked him during a pause that only a burning desire
for champagne induced Lady Sophy to allow to pass unchallenged, "will
_petite mere_ mind my coming to sleep to-night? I want very much to see
her about something, and so I told mother I'd get you and Theo to take
me home."

He bowed with an assumption of fatherly gratification. "But of course,
my dear." Then, for his powers of dissimulation were not of durable
quality, he turned quickly to Lady Sophy.

So that was all right.

When dinner was over and the women were herded together in the
drawing-room, Brigit sat down and took up a book. In an hour Theo would
be coming, and would want his answer. What was it to be?

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Theo arrived rather late, and after making his bow to his