red his luncheon to be prepared for
him at home. He had arranged to leave Berkeley Square at four, and had
directed that his lamb chops should be brought to him exactly at three.
He was himself a little late in coming down stairs, and it was ten
minutes past the hour when he desired that the chops might be put on the
table, saying that he himself would be in the drawing-room in time to
meet them. He was a man solicitous about his lamb chops, and careful
that the asparagus should be hot--solicitous also as to that bottle of
Lafitte by which those comestibles were to be accompanied, and which
was, of its own nature, too good to be shared with his brother Archie.
But as he was on the landing by the drawing-room door, descending
quickly, conscious that, in obedience to his orders, the chops had been
already served, he was met by a servant who, with disturbed face and
quick voice, told him that there was a lady waiting for him in the hall.

"D---- it," said Sir Hugh.

"She has just come, Sir Hugh, and says that she specially wants to see
you."

"Why the devil did you let her in?"

"She walked in when the door was opened, Sir Hugh, and I couldn't help
it. She seemed to be a lady, Sir Hugh, and I didn't like not to let her
inside the door."

"What's the lady's name?" asked the master.

"It's a foreign name, Sir Hugh. She said she wouldn't keep you five
minutes." The lamb chops and the asparagus and the Lafitte were in the
dining-room, and the only way to the dining-room lay through the hall to
which the foreign lady had obtained an entrance. Sir Hugh, making such
calculations as the moments allowed, determined that he would face the
enemy, and pass on to his banquet over her prostrate body. He went
quickly down into the hall, and there was encountered by Sophie
Gordeloup, who, skipping over the gun-cases, and rushing through the
portmanteaus, caught the baronet by the arm before he had been able to
approach the dining-room door. "Sir 'Oo," she said, "I am so glad to
have caught you. You are going away, and I have things to tell you which
you must hear--yes; it is well for you I have caught you, Sir 'Oo." Sir
Hugh looked as though he by no means participated in this feeling, and,
saying something about his great hurry, begged that he might be allowed
to go to his food. Then he added that, as far as his memory served him,
he had not the honor of knowing the lady who was addressing him.

"You come in to your little dinner