party."

Her ladyship's face lighted up with real gratitude. Music was her one
sincere passion; and, as she had been unable to hear that divine
songstress during the season owing to various engagements, this news was
welcome.

"Thank you," she said warmly. "How good of you to find out for me. It
was kept such a secret. How did you discover it?"

"Ah!" said Mr. Vermont, raising his eyebrows. "If I tell you that, it
would be bad policy. I may have discovered it so easily that my services
as a solver of mysteries would sink to insignificance, or again I may
have had to commit a crime; in either case, it is best to 'draw a veil
of silence,' shall we say; sufficient be it that Melba sings, and Lady
Merivale deigns to listen."

"Flatterer," she said lightly, as he rose, hat in hand. He glanced
across at Adrien, who was talking to Lord Merivale. "I am off on another
mission," he said, lowering his voice. "I fancy my friend must be
thinking of his honeymoon."

Lady Merivale started violently. "What do you mean?" she asked, striving
to maintain her usual cool, indifferent tones.

He looked down at her in innocent surprise.

"I am commissioned to buy a residence in the Swiss Lakes district for
Leroy; and as I happen to know Lady Constance Tremaine is devoted to
mountaineering--most exhausting work, I consider--well, there is only
one construction to be laid. But, of course, this is in strictest
confidence; you will not betray me, I know."

"Of course not," said her ladyship mechanically; her mind was working
rapidly, so that she hardly heard the rest of Jasper's purring speech;
and that gentleman, highly pleased at the pain he had so evidently
inflicted, made a parting epigram and left his poison to do its work in
Lady Merivale's mind.

One by one, the others followed; and Lord Merivale, with an apology to
Leroy, returned to his study and the Agricultural Gazette, having his
wife and Adrien alone.

With flushed face and outstretched hands, she turned to him
reproachfully.

"I thought you had forgotten me."

"Impossible," he murmured, as he raised her hand to his lips. "I have
been so bothered with various business matters, and have had so many
engagements----"

"But yet had the time to go to the theatre with that awful creature,"
she retorted. "Then you have been spending a day or two at Barminster."
She bit her lip savagely in her jealous pain and wounded vanity.
"Adrien," she entreated, "tell me it isn't true.