and the Misses Wragg, of course, came
uninvited. They scented scandal as jackals sniff the feast provided by
the mightier beasts.

Millicent, really despising these people, but anxious to hear the
story of Bower's love making, made no secret of her own sorrows. "Miss
Wynton was my friend," she said with ingenuous pathos. "She never met
Mr. Bower until I introduced her to him a few days before she came to
Switzerland. You may guess what a shock it gave me when I heard that
he had followed her here. Even then, knowing how strangely coincidence
works at times, I refused to believe that the man who was my promised
husband would abandon me under the spell of a momentary infatuation.
For it can be nothing more."

"Are you sure?" asked the sympathetic Mrs. Vavasour.

"By gad!" growled Wragg, "I'm inclined to differ from you there, Miss
Jaques. When Bower turned up last week they met as very old friends, I
can assure you."

"Obviously a prearranged affair," said Mrs. Vavasour.

"None of us has had a look in since," grinned Georgie vacuously. "Even
Reggie de la Vere, who is a deuce of a fellah with the girls, could
not get within yards of her."

This remark found scant favor with his audience. Miss Beryl Wragg, who
had affected de la Vere's company for want of an eligible bachelor,
pursed her lips scornfully.

"I can hardly agree with that," she said. "Edith de la Vere may be a
sport; but she doesn't exactly fling her husband at another woman's
head. Anyhow, it was amazing bad form on her part to include Miss
Wynton in her dinner party last night."

Millicent's blue eyes snapped. "Did Helen Wynton dine in public
yesterday evening?" she demanded.

"Rather! Quite a lively crowd they were too."

"Indeed. Who were the others?"

"Oh, the Badminton-Smythes, and the Bower man, and that
American--what's his name?"

Then Millicent laughed shrilly. She saw her chance of delivering a
deadly stroke, and took it without mercy. "The American? Spencer? What
a delightful mixture! Why, he is the very man who is paying Miss
Wynton's expenses."

"So you said last night. A somewhat--er--dangerous statement," coughed
the General.

"Rather stiff, you know--Eh, what?" put in Georgie.

His mother silenced him with a frosty glance. "Of course you have good
reasons for saying that?" she interposed.

Spencer passed at that instant, and there was a thrilling pause.
Millicent was well aware that every ear was alert to catch each
sylla