eyburns' drawing-room, as she did with everybody who crossed
her path, and three days before he had received a card from her for this
evening.

'Oh, yes! But I have had to miss a rehearsal this afternoon. That
concert at Searle House is becoming a great nuisance.'

'It will be a brilliant affair, I suppose. Princes on one side of
you--and Albani on the other. I see they have given you the most
conspicuous part as violinist.'

'Yes,' she said with a little satirical tightening of the lip. 'Yes--I
suppose I ought to be much flattered.'

'Of course--' he said, smiling, but embarrassed. 'To many people you
must be at this moment one of the most enviable persons in the world. A
delightful art--and every opportunity to make it tell!'

There was a pause. She looked into the fire.

'I don't know whether it is a delightful art,' she said presently,
stifling a little yawn. 'I believe I am getting very tired of London.
Sometimes I think I shouldn't be very sorry to find myself suddenly
spirited back to Burwood!'

Langham gave vent to some incredulous interjection. He had apparently
surprised her in a fit of _ennui_ which was rare with her.

'Oh no, not yet!' she said suddenly, with a return of animation. 'Madame
Desforets comes next week, and I am to see her.' She drew herself up
and turned a beaming face upon him. Was there a shaft of mischief in her
eye? He could not tell. The firelight was perplexing.

'You are to see her?' he said slowly. 'Is she coming here?'

'I hope so. Mrs. Pierson is to bring, her. I want mamma to have the
amusement of seeing her. My artistic friends are a kind of tonic to
her--they excite her so much. She regards them as a sort of show--much
as you do, in fact, only in a more charitable fashion.'

But he took no notice of what she was saying.

'Madame Desforets is coming here?' he sharply repeated, bending forward,
a curious accent in his tone.

'Yes!' she replied, with apparent surprise. Then with a careless smile:
'Oh, I remember when we were at Murewell, you were exercised that we
should know her. Well, Mr. Langham, I told you then that you were only
echoing unworthy gossip. I am in the same mind still. I have seen her,
and you haven't. To me she is the greatest actress in the world, and an
ill-used woman to boot!'

Her tone had warmed with every sentence. It struck him that she had
wilfully brought up the topic--that it gave her pleasure to quarrel with
him.

He put down his hat de