d slept a wink all night; and you as fresh and serene as the morning
itself. No, I don't think I will go out, thank you. There may be people
with cameras you know; and to be snapshotted for the edification of the
readers of some abominable halfpenny paper----"

Ailsa did not wait to hear the conclusion of the remark, but slipped
out, went hastily to the library and the telephone, and lost not a
moment in making her presence known to the caller at the other end of
the line. She had barely spoken three words into the receiver, however,
when she gave a little start, eyes and lips were involved in a radiant
smile, and her face became all red and warm with sudden blushes.

"Yes, yes, of course I recognize your voice!" she said in answer to a
query unheard by any ears but hers. "How wonderful you are! You find out
everything. I had meant to write and tell you, but we came up so
unexpectedly and---- What! Yes, I can hear you very distinctly. Pardon?
Yes. I am listening." Then letting her voice drop off into silence she
stood very, very still, with ever-widening eyes, lips parted, and a look
of great seriousness steadily settling down over her paling countenance.

She had said that she would be absent for but a minute or two; it was
five or six, however, before she came back, to find Lady Katharine and
Mrs. Raynor just as she had left them.

"No, it wasn't a reporter," she said gayly in response to Mrs. Raynor's
inquiring look. "It was a dear old friend"--blushing rosily--"a Mr.
Philip Barch, whom I first met through my uncle, Sir Horace Wyvern, in
the days before his second marriage. Mr. Barch has asked if he may be
permitted to call this morning, and I have taken the liberty of saying
that he may."

"Take a further one, dear, and ask him to stop to luncheon when he
comes," said Mrs. Raynor. "When a girl blushes like that over the mere
mentioning of a man's name---- Oh, well, I wasn't always fifty-two, my
dear, and I flatter myself that I know the duties of a hostess."

Miss Lorne's only response was another and a yet more radiant blush and
an immediate return to the side of the slim, dark girl standing in the
recess of the window.

"Kathie, you are positively lazy," she said. "You haven't budged an inch
since I left, and I distinctly asked you to get your hat."

"I know it," admitted Lady Katharine. "But, Ailsa, dear, I simply
couldn't. I am afraid Uncle John and Harry may return, and you know how
anxious I am."

"S