maze. Then
the expression in her face dispelled it. She held out her hand, and he
clasped it; and before he had withdrawn his eyes from hers, he knew that
his peace was made, and Mrs. Wickersham's drawing-room had become
another place. This, then, was what Alice Lancaster meant when she spoke
of the peacemakers.

"It does not in the least matter about the dress, I assure you," she
said in reply to his apology. "My dressmaker, Lois Huntington, can
repair it so that you will not know it has been torn. It was only a ruse
of mine to attract your attention." She was trying to speak lightly. "I
thought you were not going to speak to me at all. It seems to be a way
you have of treating your old friends--your oldest friends,"
she laughed.

"Oh, the insolence of youth!" said Keith, wishing to keep away from a
serious subject. "Let us settle this question of age here and now. I say
you are seven years old."

"You are a Bourbon," she said; "you neither forget nor learn. Look at
me. How old do I look?"

"Seven--"

"No. Look."

"I am looking-would I were Argus! You look like--perpetual Youth."

And she did. She was dressed in pure white. Her dark eyes were soft and
gentle, yet with mischief lurking in them, and her straight brows,
almost black, added to their lustre. Her dark hair was brushed back from
her white forehead, and as she turned, Keith noted again, as he had done
the first time he met her, the fine profile and the beautiful lines of
her round throat, with the curves below it, as white as snow. "Perpetual
Youth," he murmured.

"And do you know what you are?" she challenged him.

"Yes; Age."

"No. Flattery. But I am proof. I have learned that men are deceivers
ever. You positively refused to see me when I had left word with the
servant that I would see you if you called." She gave him a swift little
glance to see how he took her charge.

"I did nothing of the kind. I will admit that I should know where you
are by instinct, as Sir John knew the Prince; but I did not expect you
to insist on my doing so. How was I to know you were in the city?"

"The servant told you."

"The servant told me?"

As Keith's brow puckered in the effort to unravel the mystery, she
nodded.

"Um-hum--I heard him. I was at the head of the stair."

Keith tapped his head.

"It's old age--sheer senility."

"'No; I don't want to see the other lady,'" she said, mimicking him so
exactly that he opened his eyes wide.

"I am stayi