d Mrs. Ansell, regaining her seat, murmured discreetly: "She
puts it so--yes."

"My dear Maria--" Mr. Langhope repeated helplessly, tossing aside his
paper and drawing his chair up to the table.

"But it would be perfectly easy to return: it is quite unnecessary to
wait here for his recovery," Mr. Tredegar pursued, as though setting
forth a fact which had not hitherto presented itself to the more limited
intelligence of his hearers.

Mr. Langhope emitted a short laugh, and Mrs. Ansell answered gently:
"She says she detests the long journey."

Mr. Tredegar rose and gathered up his letters with a gesture of
annoyance. "In that case--if I had been notified earlier of this
decision, I might have caught the morning train," he interrupted
himself, glancing resentfully at his watch.

"Oh, don't leave us, Tredegar," Mr. Langhope entreated. "We'll reason
with her--we'll persuade her to go back by the three-forty."

Mrs. Ansell smiled. "She telegraphed at seven. Cicely and the governess
are already on their way."

"At seven? But, my dear friend, why on earth didn't you tell us?"

"I didn't know till a few minutes ago. Bessy called me in as I was
coming down."

"Ah--" Mr. Langhope murmured, meeting her eyes for a fraction of a
second. In the encounter, she appeared to communicate something more
than she had spoken, for as he stooped to pick up his paper he said,
more easily: "My dear Tredegar, if we're in a box there's no reason why
we should force you into it too. Ring for Ropes, and we'll look up a
train for you."

Mr. Tredegar appeared slightly ruffled at this prompt acquiescence in
his threatened departure. "Of course, if I had been notified in advance,
I might have arranged to postpone my engagements another day; but in any
case, it is quite out of the question that I should return in a
week--and quite unnecessary," he added, snapping his lips shut as though
he were closing his last portmanteau.

"Oh, quite--quite," Mr. Langhope assented. "It isn't, in fact, in the
least necessary for any of us either to stay on now or to return.
Truscomb could come to Long Island when he recovers, and answer any
questions we may have to put; but if Bessy has sent for the child, we
must of course put off going for today--at least I must," he added
sighing, "and, though I know it's out of the question to exact such a
sacrifice from you, I have a faint hope that our delightful friend here,
with the altruistic spirit of her sex----