ciful, but he had had his own way about the
boys, so I insisted on it. It's such a pretty name, so sweet and
winsome--don't you think so? And uncommon. One meets so many Gladyses
and Phyllises, but so seldom a Celia. Did you ever know a Celia?"

She looked at him, and the motherly smile faded at sight of his tortured
face.

"Yes. I knew a Celia," he said thickly, and Juliet looked hurriedly in
another direction, her heart leaping to a swift conclusion.

"He loved a girl called Celia, and she died, and he married Lady Anne
for her position. All his success has not brought him happiness. Oh,
the poor, _poor_ man!"

Meantime Lady Anne's voice had trailed into silence, and Rupert Dempster
was answering Mrs Ingram's unspoken summons. Like Manning he had but
little to say, but there was all the difference in the world in his
manner of saying it.

"I wished for Eve," he said simply. "Here she is!" and again he slipped
his hand through his wife's arm. As a matter of course he had seated
himself by her side; as a matter of course Eve had looked for his
coming. For all their friendliness and courtesy, there was about these
two an air of detachment from their surroundings, an air of living apart
in a world of their own, fenced round with an ambuscade through which no
darts could pass. The affectionate camaraderie of the Lessings and
Maplestones was a good and pleasant thing to witness, but the bond which
bound these two was finer, more exalted.

Eve's eyes were deep and luminous at that moment, but their beautiful
glance held no remembrance of her companions. All her thought was for
her man.

"Ah, Rupert, yes! you have gained your wish!" Mrs Ingram said deeply.
She looked at the two as they sat side by side, and a reflection of
their own radiance showed in her own face. "It was a great wish," she
said, "a wish that was worth while, for your treasure can never be taken
away. Death itself is powerless to divide your souls. Dear Rupert, I
am glad for you. We are all glad! It is good to have you among us
to-day..."

Hereward Lowther bent forward in his seat, the firelight playing on his
eager, animated face. Throughout the evening he had worn an air of
expectancy, and now he burst eagerly into speech.

"Mrs Ingram, I have to thank you for a tremendously interesting
evening. My wife told me that she had a special reason for wishing to
accept your invitation. I understood that we were to celebrate some