Mr. Bullsom spoke up at once.

"Off you go, Brooks," he said, firmly. "Don't you go refusing an
invitation like that. Lord Arranmore is a bit eccentric, they say, and
he isn't the sort of man to like refusals. You've just got time."

"They had the message two hours ago, and have been trying everywhere to
find Mr. Brooks," the housemaid added.

Selina helped him on with his coat.

"Will you come another evening soon and play billiards with us?" she
asked, dropping her voice a little.

"With pleasure," Brooks answered. "Do you mind saying good-bye to your
cousin for me? I am sorry not to see her again."

CHAPTER XV

A SUPPER-PARTY AT THE "QUEEN'S"

Brooks was shown into a private room at the Queen's Hotel, and he
certainly had no cause to complain of the warmth of his welcome. Lady
Sybil, in fact, made room for him by her side, and he fancied that there
was a gleam of reproach in her eyes as she looked up at him.

"Is Medchester really so large a place that one can get lost in it?" she
asked. "Lord Arranmore has been sending messengers in every direction
ever since we decided upon our little excursion.

"I telephoned to your office, sent a groom to your rooms and to the
club, and at last we had given you up," Lord Arranmore remarked.

"And I," Sybil murmured, "was in a shocking bad temper."

"It is very good of you all," Brooks remarked, cheerfully. "I left the
office rather early, and have been giving a sort of lecture to-night at
the Secular Hall. Then I went up to have a game of billiards with Mr.
Bullsom. Your telephone message found me there. You must remember that
even if Medchester is not a very large place I am a very unimportant
person."

"Dear me, what modesty," Lady Caroom remarked, laughing. "To us,
however, you happened to be very important. I hate a party of three."

Brooks helped himself to a quail, and remembered that he was hungry.

"This is very unusual dissipation, isn't it?" he asked. "I never
dreamed that you would be likely to come into our little theatre."

"It was Sybil's doings," Lady Caroom answered. "She declared that she
was dull, and that she had never seen A /Message from Mars./ I think
that all that serious talk the other evening gave her the blues."

"I am always dull in the winter when there is no hunting," Sybil
remarked. "This frost is abominable. I have not forgotten our talk
either. I feel positively wicked every time I sip champagne."

"Our young philanthropi