ert. I am going to help you."

She spoke with a winning and impulsive graciousness that stirred again
within him that curious sense of groping in the dark among objects
familiar but unrecognisable. Surely he had met this stranger somewhere
before--in a crowded thoroughfare, in a train, possibly in a theatre, or
even in a church!

She looked at him questioningly as he lingered, and with another bow he
turned and left her. Doubtless, when he saw her face he would remember,
or realise that he had been mistaken.

VI

Mademoiselle Treves kept her word, and wherever the fun was at its
height she was invariably the centre of it. The shy children crowded
about her. She seemed to possess a special charm for them.

Gwen was delighted, and was obviously enjoying herself to the utmost. In
the absence of her _bete noire_ whom she had courageously omitted to
invite, she rejoiced to see that her mother was being unusually gracious
to her beloved Admiral, who was as merry as a schoolboy in consequence.

She was shrewdly aware, however, that the welcome change was but
temporary. Incomprehensible though it was to Gwen, she knew that Major
Coningsby's power over her gay and frivolous young mother was absolute.
He ruled her with a rod of iron, and Lady Emberdale actually enjoyed his
tyranny. The rough court he paid her served to turn her head completely,
and she never attempted to resist his influence.

It was all very distasteful to Gwen, who hated the man with the whole
force of her nature. She was thankful to feel that Carey was enlisted on
her side. She looked upon him as a tower of strength, and, forebodings
notwithstanding, she was able to throw herself heart and soul into the
evening's festivities, and to beam delightedly upon her cousin as she
walked behind him with Charlie to the supper room.

Carey was escorting the French governess. He found a comfortable corner
for her in the thronged room at a table laid for two.

"I am bearing in mind your promise to stand by till twelve o'clock," he
said. "It's the only thing that keeps me going, for I have a powerful
longing to remove my mask in defiance of orders. It feels like a porous
plaster. I shall only hold out till midnight with your gallant
assistance."

He stooped with the words to pick up her fan which she had dropped. He
was obliged to use his left hand, and he knew that she gave a quick
start at sight of it. But she spoke instantly and he admired her ready
self-co