erable!' cried the girl, pressing her face again into
her companion's kerchief. 'I was all, all mistaken; he had never
thought!'

'Why the deuce then did he run about that way after you? He was a brute
to say it!'

'He didn't say it and he never ran about. He behaved like a perfect
gentleman.'

'I've no patience--I wish I had seen him that time!' Lady Davenant
declared.

'Yes, that would have been nice! You'll never see him; if he _is_ a
gentleman he'll rush away.'

'Bless me, what a rushing away!' murmured the old woman. Then passing
her arm round Laura she added, 'You'll please to come upstairs with me.'

Half an hour later she had some conversation with her butler which led
to his consulting a little register into which it was his law to
transcribe with great neatness, from their cards, the addresses of new
visitors. This volume, kept in the drawer of the hall table, revealed
the fact that Mr. Wendover was staying in George Street, Hanover Square.
'Get into a cab immediately and tell him to come and see me this
evening,' Lady Davenant said. 'Make him understand that it interests him
very nearly, so that no matter what his engagements may be he must give
them up. Go quickly and you'll just find him: he'll be sure to be at
home to dress for dinner.' She had calculated justly, for a few minutes
before ten o'clock the door of her drawing-room was thrown open and Mr.
Wendover was announced.

'Sit there,' said the old lady; 'no, not that one, nearer to me. We must
talk low. My dear sir, I won't bite you!'

'Oh, this is very comfortable,' Mr. Wendover replied vaguely, smiling
through his visible anxiety. It was no more than natural that he should
wonder what Laura Wing's peremptory friend wanted of him at that hour of
the night; but nothing could exceed the gallantry of his attempt to
conceal the symptoms of alarm.

'You ought to have come before, you know,' Lady Davenant went on. 'I
have wanted to see you more than once.'

'I have been dining out--I hurried away. This was the first possible
moment, I assure you.'

'I too was dining out and I stopped at home on purpose to see you. But I
didn't mean to-night, for you have done very well. I was quite intending
to send for you--the other day. But something put it out of my head.
Besides, I knew she wouldn't like it.'

'Why, Lady Davenant, I made a point of calling, ever so long ago--after
that day!' the young man exclaimed, not reassured, or at any rate not
en