roved her assent. The moment of destiny, though I did not know
it, had arrived. The entree course had begun, and of the two entrees
one was the famous Caerlaverock curry. Now on a hot July evening in
London there are more attractive foods than curry seven times heated,
MORE INDICO. I doubt if any guest would have touched it, had not our
host in his viceregal voice called the attention of the three ministers
to its merits, while explaining that under doctor's orders he was
compelled to refrain for a season. The result was that Mulross,
Cargill, and Vennard alone of the men partook of it. Miss Claudia,
alone of the women, followed suit in the fervour of her hero-worship.
She ate a mouthful, and then drank rapidly two glasses of water.

My narrative of the events which followed is based rather on what I
should have seen than on what I saw. I had not the key, and missed
much which otherwise would have been plain to me. For example, if I
had known the secret, I must have seen Miss Claudia's gaze cease to
rest upon Vennard and the adoration die out of her eyes. I must have
noticed her face soften to the unhappy Deloraine. As it was, I did not
remark her behaviour, till I heard her say to her neighbour--

"Can't you get hold of Mr. Vennard and forcibly cut his hair?"

Deloraine looked round with a start. Miss Barriton's tone was intimate
and her face friendly.

"Some people think it picturesque," he said in serious bewilderment.

"Oh, yes, picturesque--like a hair-dresser's young man!" she shrugged
her shoulders. "He looks as if he had never been out of doors in his
life."

Now, whatever the faults of Tommy's appearance, he had a wholesome
sunburnt face, and he knew it. This speech of Miss Barriton's cheered
him enormously, for he argued that if she had fallen out of love with
Vennard's looks she might fall in love with his own. Being a
philosopher in his way, he was content to take what the gods gave, and
ask for no explanations.

I do not know how their conversation prospered, for my attention was
distracted by the extraordinary behaviour of the Home Secretary. Mr.
Cargill had made himself notorious by his treatment of "political"
prisoners. It was sufficient in his eyes for a criminal to confess to
political convictions to secure the most lenient treatment and a speedy
release. The Irish patriot who cracked skulls in the Scotland Division
of Liverpool, the Suffragist who broke windows and the noses o