atrine had been wading through trivialities all her
life; a big experience was just what she needed. Besides--as a matter
of fact... there was a _Man_!"

"Aha!" cried Cassandra, immediately fired with feminine interest. "On
the ship?"

"Pre-cisely! Fastening her into life-belts, bidding her a tragic adieu,
waving a gallant hand from the sinking prow."

"Just so. I understand! And when is the wedding to be?"

Grizel's face lengthened in dismay.

"Goodness me--I haven't _told_ you, have I? No one is to know for a
couple of months. How on earth did you guess? _Please_ don't speak of
it to a soul. You see, it's a trifle awkward, because as a matter of
fact the real man,--it wasn't the real man,--I mean it _was_ the real
man really, only he pretended--"

Cassandra held up a protesting hand.

"I think you'd better leave it alone! You didn't tell me anything; I
guessed, but I'll promise to forget forthwith, and be agreeably
surprised when I hear the news a few months hence. _Don't_ tell me any
names!"

Before Grizel could reply the whizz of an electric bell sounded through
the house, and both women involuntarily groaned, foreseeing an end to
their _tete-a-tete_, but the next moment Grizel's eyes brightened.

"It's a _man_!" she whispered ecstatically. "It's a man. I can hear
his dear boots! My first man caller! Oh joy! Oh rapture!"

"Captain Peignton."

Dane entered, his eyes narrowed in his usual, short-sighted fashion.
Cassandra noticed that he threw a quick glance round the room and
guessed, what was indeed the truth, that he had hoped to meet Teresa
Mallison, and have an opportunity of escorting her home. When he caught
sight of herself, his face showed a ripple of feeling that came and went
before she could decipher its meaning. Then he sat down, and made
conversation to Grizel, and was smiled at in return with a display of
dimples which seemed to have sprung into existence for his benefit.
Certainly the old ladies had not been treated to them; even Cassandra
herself had come off second best, for Grizel was essentially a man's
woman, who awoke to her highest self in the presence of the opposite
sex. It was easy to see that the present visitor was making a
favourable impression, and that Grizel was alive to the charm which
Cassandra had found it so difficult to define.

Looking on in silence during the first moments of conversation,
Cassandra was not so sure that Peignton reciprocated his