oicing strength.

The General, having secured his passage home, was in good spirits as far
as his own affairs were concerned, though still irritable on the score
of his nephew's. Since the abortive attempt on his confidence of the
night before, Roger had avoided all private conversation with his uncle;
and for once the old had to learn patience from the young.

The party was given by the wife of one of the staff of the French
Embassy--a young Frenchwoman, as gay and frank as her babies, and
possessed, none the less, of all the social arts of her nation. She had
taken a shrewd interest in the matter of Daphne Floyd and the
Englishman. Daphne, according to her, should be promptly married and her
millions taken care of, and the handsome, broad-shouldered fellow
impressed the little Frenchwoman's imagination as a proper and capable
watchdog. She had indeed become aware that something was wrong, but her
acuteness entirely refused to believe that it had any vital connection
with the advent of pretty Elsie Maddison. Meanwhile, to please Daphne,
whom she liked, while conscious of a strong and frequent desire to smite
her, Madame de Fronsac had invited Mrs. Verrier, treating her with a
cold and punctilious courtesy that, as applied to any other guest, would
have seemed an affront.

In vain, however, did the hostess, in vain did other kindly bystanders,
endeavour to play the game of Daphne Floyd. In the first place Daphne
herself, though piped unto, refused to dance. She avoided the society of
Roger Barnes in a pointed and public way, bright colour on her cheeks
and a wild light in her eyes; the Under-Secretary escorted her and
carried her wrap. Washington did not know what to think. For owing to
this conduct of Daphne's, the charming Boston girl, the other _ingenue_
of the party, fell constantly to the care of young Barnes; and to see
them stepping along the green ways together, matched almost in height,
and clearly of the same English ancestry and race, pleased while it
puzzled the spectators.

The party lunched in a little inn beside the river, and then scattered
again along woodland paths. Daphne and the Under-Secretary wandered on
ahead and were some distance from the rest of the party when that
gentleman suddenly looked at his watch in dismay. An appointment had to
be kept with the President at a certain hour, and the Under-Secretary's
wits had been wandering. There was nothing for it but to take a short
cut through the