that he'd be down that evening with a guest.

Nina got the message just as she had arranged her tables; but woman is
born to sorrow and heiress to all the unlooked-for idiocies of man.

"Dear," she said to Eileen, the tears of uxorial vexation drying unshed
in her pretty eyes, "Austin has thought fit to seize upon this moment to
bring a man down to dinner. So if you are dressed would you kindly see
that the tables are rearranged, and then telephone somebody to fill
in--two girls, you know. The oldest Craig girl might do for one. Beg her
mother to let her come."

Eileen was being laced, but she walked to the door of Nina's room,
followed by her little Alsatian maid, who deftly continued her offices
_en route_.

"Whom is Austin bringing?" she asked.

"He didn't say. Can't you think of a second girl to get? Isn't it
vexing! Of course there's nobody left--nobody ever fills in in the
country. . . . Do you know, I'll be driven into letting Drina sit up
with us!--for sheer lack of material. I suppose the little imp will have
a fit if I suggest it, and probably perish of indigestion to-morrow."

Eileen laughed. "Oh, Nina, _do_ let Drina come this once! It can't hurt
her--she'll look so quaint. The child's nearly fifteen, you know; do let
me put up her hair. Boots will take her in."

"Well, you and Austin can administer the calomel to-morrow, then. . . .
And do ring up Daisy Craig; tell her mother I'm desperate, and that she
and Drina can occupy the same hospital to-morrow."

And so it happened that among the jolly youthful throng which clustered
around the little candle-lighted tables in the dining-room at
Silverside, Drina, in ecstasy, curly hair just above the nape of her
slim white neck, and cheeks like pink fire, sat between Boots and a
vacant chair reserved for her tardy father.

For Nina had waited as long as she dared; then Boots had been summoned
to take in Drina and the youthful Craig girl; and, as there were to have
been six at a table, at that particular table sat Boots decorously
facing Eileen, with the two children on either hand and two empty chairs
flanking Eileen.

A jolly informality made up for Austin's shortcoming; Gerald and his
pretty bride were the centres of delighted curiosity from the Minster
twins and the Innis girls and Evelyn Cardwell--all her intimates. And
the younger Draymores, the Grays, Lawns, and Craigs were there in
force--gay, noisy, unembarrassed young people who seemed scarcely