eard Mr. Gresley fire off the simile of the lamb, and
considered it sound.

"How absurd you are. You always make me laugh. I suppose he has left now
that he is unfrozen."

"Oh no. He is still here. We would not let him go till he was better. He
is not up to much. Weak chap at the best of times, I should think. He's
lying low in the smoking-room till the people are gone."

"Mr. Scarlett is an old friend of ours," said Lady Newhaven, sipping her
glass of water, and spilling a little; "but I can't quite forgive
him--no, I really can't--for the danger he caused to Edward. You know,
or perhaps you don't know, that Edward can't swim, either. Even now I
can't bear to think what might have happened."

She closed her eyes with evident emotion.

Doll's stolid garden-party face relaxed. "Good little woman," he
thought. "As fond of him as she can be."

"All's well that ends well," he remarked, aloud.

Doll did not know that he was quoting Shakespeare, but he did know by
long experience that this sentence could be relied on as suitable to
the occasion, or to any occasion that looked a little "doddery," and
finished up all right.

"And now, Mr. Loftus, positively I must insist on your leaving me
quietly here. I am quite sure you are wanted outside, and I should blame
myself if you wasted another minute on me. It was only the sun which
affected me. Don't mention it to Edward. He is always so fussy about me.
I will rest quietly here for a quarter of an hour, and then rejoin you
all again in the garden."

* * * * *

"I hope I am not disturbing any one," said Lord Newhaven, quietly
entering the smoking-room. "Well, Scarlett, how are you getting on?"

Hugh, who was lying on a sofa with his arms raised and his hands behind
his head, looked up, and his expression changed.

"He was thinking of something uncommonly pleasant," thought Lord
Newhaven, "not of me or mine, I fancy. I have come to smoke a cigarette
in peace," he added aloud, "if you don't object."

"Of course not."

Lord Newhaven lit his cigarette and puffed a moment in silence.

"Hot outside," he said.

Hugh nodded. He wondered how soon he could make a pretext for getting up
and leaving the room.

There was a faint silken rustle, and Lady Newhaven, pale, breathless,
came swiftly in and closed the door. The instant afterwards she saw her
husband, and shrank back with a little cry. Lord Newhaven did not look
at her. His eyes were