, aware that he had been rebuffed, had found an
explanation for it. The girl was annoyed at having been forced to admit
her pearls were imitation. He decided to put everything right.

"Miss Fenimer," he said, and she turned her head perhaps half an inch in
his direction, "I think you misunderstood me just now. My standards are
probably different from those of the men you are accustomed to. To me
the fact that your pearls are not real is an added beauty. I'm glad
they're not--"

"Thank you," said Christine, "but I'm not." And this time he understood
that he had lost her for good.

After dinner, Mrs. Almar, knowing that her innings were over, very
effectively prevented Christine having hers, by insisting on playing
bridge. She had an excellent head for cards, and always needed money.
Christine allowed herself to be drawn in, supposing that Riatt would be
one of the players, and found herself seated opposite to Hickson and next
to Jack Ussher.

Wickham, feeling very much left out and desirous of showing how well
accustomed he was to the casual manners of polite society, consoled
himself with an evening paper. Laura Ussher led Riatt to a comfortable
corner out of earshot of the bridge-table.

"Now do tell me, Max," she said, "what you think of them all."

"I think, my dear Laura," he answered, "that they are a very playful band
of cut-throats, and next time you ask me to stay, I hope you and Jack
will be entirely alone."

* * * * *

The servants in a household like the Usshers' were subjected to almost
every strain, except that of early rising. No one dreamed of coming down
stairs before eleven, and most people not until lunch time.

The next morning Riatt was among the first--that is to say he was up
early enough not to be able to escape a tour of inspection of the place
under the guidance of his host. He had seen the stables and the new
garage, and the sheet of snow beneath which lay the garden, and the other
totally different sheet of snow beneath which was the soil in which
Ussher intended next summer to plant a rose garden. He had gone over,
tree by tree, the plantation of firs, and had noted how the tips of some
were injured, and had given his opinion as to whether or not it were
likely that deer had stolen down from the wild country near at hand and
nibbled the young firs in the night.

"It's perfectly possible," said Ussher. "I have five hundred acres
myself, and then the C