a voice near Keith.

"Well, I have known her all my life, and until it becomes a public
scandal I don't feel authorized to cut her--"

The speaker was Mrs. Nailor, who was in her most charitable mood.

"Oh, of course, I shall speak to her here, but I mean--I certainly shall
not visit her."

"You know she has quarrelled with her friend, Mrs. Lancaster? About her
husband." This was behind her fan.

"Oh, yes. She is to be here to-night. Quite brazen, isn't it? We shall
see how they meet. I met a remarkably pretty girl down in the
dressing-room," she continued; "one of the guests. She has such pretty
manners, too. Really, I thought, from her politeness to me in arranging
my dress, she must be one of the maids until Mrs. Wentworth spoke to
her. Young girls nowadays are so rude! They take up the mirror the whole
time, and never think of letting you see yourself. I wonder who she
can be?"

"Possibly Mrs. Wentworth's companion. I think she is here. She has to
have some one to do the proprieties, you know?" said Mrs. Nailor.

"I should think it might be as well," assented the other, with a sniff.
"But she would hardly be here!"

"She is really her governess, a very ill-bred and rude young person,"
said Mrs. Nailor.

The other sighed.

"Society is getting so democratic now, one might say, so mixed, that
there is no telling whom one may meet nowadays."

"No, indeed," pursued Mrs. Nailor. "I do not at all approve of
governesses and such persons being invited out. I think the English way
much the better. There the governess never dreams of coming to the table
except to luncheon, and her friends are the housekeeper and the butler."

Keith, wearied of the banalities at his ear, crossed over to where Mrs.
Wentworth stood a little apart from the other ladies. One or two men
were talking to her. She was evidently pleased to see him. She talked
volubly, and with just that pitch in her voice that betrays a subcurrent
of excitement.

From time to time she glanced about her, appearing to Keith to search
the faces of the other women. Keith wondered if it were a fancy of his
that they were holding a little aloof from her. Presently Mrs. Nailor
came up and spoke to her.

Keith backed away a little, and found himself mixed up with the train of
a lady behind him, a dainty thing of white muslin.

He apologized in some confusion, and turning, found himself looking into
Lois Huntington's eyes. For a bare moment he was in a sort of