anyway!"

"Pardon me, Dook," she said, "but the guide to Myrlton I purchased at
the station gave me to understand I should find a second portrait of
Queen Elizabeth in this gallery. I cannot see it. Would you be good
enough to indicate the picture to me?"

"Oh, that was a duplicate," said the Duke, resignedly. "I sold it at
Christie's last year. It brought me in ten thousand pounds--more than
it was worth. I lived in comfort upon it for quite six months."

"You don't say!" said Martina B. Cadwallader.

Before the party said good-night, the meanest observer could have told
that things were going at sixes and sevens, no one doing exactly what
was expected of them.

Signs of disturbance showed as early as the few minutes before dinner.

Lord Luffton was openly seeking the society of the heiress, with no
regard to the blandishments of Lady Grenellen. But by half-past eleven
the clouds had spread all round.

Augustus, perhaps, looked the most upset. He had spent an evening on
thorns of jealousy. First, snubbed sharply by the fair Cordelia; then,
having to witness her ineffectual attempts to detach Lord Luffton from
Miss Trumpet.

The Duke, while devoting himself to me, could not quite conceal his
annoyance at the turn affairs were taking.

Miss Martina B. Cadwallader was plainly irritated with her niece for
not attending to the business they had come for. Babykins was exerting
her mosquito propensities and stinging every one all round. In fact,
only the few casual guests, who did not count one way or another,
seemed calm and undisturbed.

"It is really provoking," Lady Tilchester said to me. "What on earth
did they ask Luffy here for? He is noted for this sort of thing, and,
of course, posing as a war hero adds an extra lustre to his charms."

The only two people supremely unconscious of delinquencies were the
causes of all the trouble--Lord Luffton and Miss Trumpet.

They had gone off to look at the pictures in the long gallery, and
at twenty minutes to twelve were nowhere to be seen.

Lady Glenellen's eyes flashed ominously.

"Let us go to bed," she said. "Betty, why don't you have the lights
turned out?"

Fortunately the aunt did not hear this remark. As her face showed, she
was quite capable of a sharp reply to anything, and though, no doubt,
annoyed with the niece, would certainly defend her.

"We had better go and look for them," said the Duke.

"Perhaps they have fallen down the oubliette," sugge