urmises and prognostications, so pleasantly
wide of the mark, and the way questions and hints perished before his
sphinx-like candour. He spoke cheerily too of Miltoun, who was 'all
right again,' and 'burning for the fray' when the House met again in
the autumn. And he chaffed Lord Malvezin about his wife. If anything--he
said--could make Bertie take an interest in politics, it would be she.
He had two capital gallops, being well known to the police: The day was
bright, and he was sorry to turn home. Falling in with Harbinger, he
asked him to come back to lunch. There had seemed something different
lately, an almost morose look, about young Harbinger; and his wife's
disquieting words about Barbara came back to Lord Valleys with a shock.
He had seen little of the child lately, and in the general clearing up
of this time of year had forgotten all about the matter.

Agatha, who was still staying at Valleys House with little Ann, waiting
to travel up to Scotland with her mother, was out, and there was no one
at lunch except Lady Valleys and Barbara herself. Conversation flagged;
for the young people were extremely silent, Lady Valleys was considering
the draft of a report which had to be settled before she left, and Lord
Valleys himself was rather carefully watching his daughter. The news
that Lord Miltoun was in the study came as a surprise, and somewhat of a
relief to all. To an exhortation to luring him in to lunch; the servant
replied that Lord Miltoun had lunched, and would wait.

"Does he know there's no one here?"

"Yes, my lady."

Lady Valleys pushed back her plate, and rose:

"Oh, well!" she said, "I've finished."

Lord Valleys also got up, and they went out together, leaving Barbara,
who had risen, looking doubtfully at the door.

Lord Valleys had recently been told of the nursing episode, and had
received the news with the dubious air of one hearing something about an
eccentric person, which, heard about anyone else, could have had but one
significance. If Eustace had been a normal young man his father would
have shrugged his shoulder's, and thought: "Oh, well! There it is!" As
it was, he had literally not known what to think.

And now, crossing the saloon which intervened between the dining-room
and the study, he said to his wife uneasily:

"Is it this woman again, Gertrude--or what?"

Lady Valleys answered with a shrug:

"Goodness knows, my dear."

Miltoun was standing in the embrasure of a window