and appeared to be on the verge of
a headlong declaration.

"It's only Percy Draymore's kid brother," she explained, passing her arm
through his with a little sigh of satisfaction. "Where have you been all
the while?--and with whom have you danced, please?--and who is the
pretty girl you paid court to during that last dance? What? _Didn't_ pay
court to her? Do you expect me to believe that? . . . Oh, here comes
Nina and Austin. . . . How pretty the tables look, all lighted up among
the trees! And such an uproar!"--as they came into the jolly tumult and
passed in among a labyrinth of tables, greeted laughingly from every
side.

Under a vigorous young oak-tree thickly festooned with lanterns Austin
found an unoccupied table. There was a great deal of racket and laughter
from the groups surrounding them, but this seemed to be the only
available spot; besides, Austin was hungry, and he said so.

Nina, with Selwyn on her left, looked around for Gerald and Lansing.
When the latter came sauntering up, Austin questioned him, but he
replied carelessly that Gerald had gone to join some people whom he,
Lansing, did not know very well.

"Why, there he is now!" exclaimed Eileen, catching sight of her brother
seated among a very noisy group on the outer edge of the illuminated
zone. "Who are those people, Nina? Oh! Rosamund Fane is there, too;
and--and--"

She ceased speaking so abruptly that Selwyn turned around; and Nina bit
her lip in vexation and glanced at her husband. For, among the
overanimated and almost boisterous group which was attracting the
attention of everybody in the vicinity sat Mrs. Jack Ruthven. And Selwyn
saw her.

For a moment he looked at her--looked at Gerald beside her, and Neergard
on the other side, and Rosamund opposite; and at the others, whom he had
never before seen. Then quietly, but with heightened colour, he turned
his attention to the glass which the servant had just filled for him,
and, resting his hand on the stem, stared at the bubbles crowding upward
through it to the foamy brim.

Nina and Boots had begun, ostentatiously, an exceedingly animated
conversation; and they became almost aggressive, appealing to Austin,
who sat back with a frown on his heavy face--and to Eileen, who was
sipping her mineral water and staring thoughtfully at a big, round,
orange-tinted lantern which hung like the harvest moon behind Gerald,
throwing his curly head into silhouette.

[Illustration: "Gerald besi