nd instantly made acquaintance with her, on seeing which,
Macleod, with deep vexation at his heart, but with a pleasant and
careless face, had to walk along also.

"What an odd meeting!" said he. "I have been giving Oscar a run. I am
glad to have a chance of bidding you good-night. You are not very tired,
I hope."

"I am rather tired," said she; "but I have only two more nights, and
then my holiday begins."

He shook hands with both sisters, and wished them good-night, and
departed. As Miss Gertrude White went into her father's house she seemed
rather grave.

"Gerty," said the younger sister, as she screwed up the gas, "wouldn't
the name of Lady Macleod look well in a play-bill?"

The elder sister would not answer; but as she turned away there was a
quick flush of color in her face--whether caused by anger or by a sudden
revelation of her own thought it was impossible to say.

CHAPTER XI.

A FLOWER.

The many friends Macleod had made in the South--or rather those of them
who had remained in town till the end of the season--showed an unwonted
interest in this nondescript party of his; and it was at a comparatively
early hour in the evening that the various groups of people began to
show themselves in Miss Rawlinson's garden. That prim old lady, with her
quick, bright ways, and her humorous little speeches, studiously kept
herself in the background. It was Sir Keith Macleod who was the host.
And when he remarked to her that he thought the most beautiful night of
all the beautiful time he had spent in the South had been reserved for
this very party, she replied--looking round the garden just as if she
had been one of his guests--that it was a pretty scene. And it was a
pretty scene. The last fire of the sunset was just touching the topmost
branches of the trees. In the colder shade below, the banks and beds of
flowers and the costumes of the ladies acquired a strange intensity of
color. Then there was a band playing, and a good deal of chatting going
on, and one old gentleman with a grizzled mustache humbly receiving
lessons in lawn tennis from an imperious small maiden of ten. Macleod
was here, there, and everywhere. The lanterns were to be lit while the
people were in at supper. Lieutenant Ogilvie was directed to take in
Lady Beauregard when the time arrived.

"You must take her in yourself, Macleod," said that properly constituted
youth. "If you outrage the sacred laws of precedence--"

"I mean to t