perplexed and more preoccupied with her. She
gave him no opportunity of speaking with her alone, for she had planned
her day and occupations so that she was all the time in the company of
others, and hour by hour his trouble increased. Nor did the trouble
spare Daisy. Nothing could be clearer to her eye, with such absolute
naturalness did Jeannie manage the situation, than that she now, at any
rate, was standing quite aloof from Lord Lindfield.

A few days ago Daisy had told herself that she was glad her aunt liked
him, but it should be added that to-day she was equally glad that
Jeannie apparently did not. Yet the trouble did not spare Daisy, for if
Aunt Jeannie was utterly changed to Lindfield, he seemed to be utterly
changed too. He was grave, anxious, preoccupied, and the meaning of it
escaped the girl, even as it had escaped Lady Nottingham.

The party had been gradually gathering in the verandah before it was
time to dress for dinner that night, and Jeannie, _a propos_ of the
dressing-bell, had just announced that a quarter of an hour was enough
for any nimble woman, with a competent maid.

"She throws things at me, and I catch them and put them on," she said.
"If I don't like them I drop them, and the floor of the room looks
rather like Carnival-time until she clears up."

But the sense of the meeting was against Jeannie; nobody else could
"manage," it appeared, under twenty minutes, and Jim Crowfoot stuck out
for half an hour.

"You've got soft things to put on," he said; "but imagine a stiff
shirt-cuff hitting you in the eye when your maid threw it. The floor of
my room would look not so much like Carnival-time as a shambles."

Lord Lindfield, indeed, alone supported Jeannie.

"I want ten minutes," he said; "neither more nor less. Jim, it's time
for you to go, else you will keep us waiting for dinner. I see that Mrs.
Halton and I will be left alone at ten minutes past eight, and I at a
quarter past."

Jeannie heard this perfectly, but she turned quickly to Lady Nottingham.

"Alice, is it true that you have a post out after dinner?" she said.
"Yes? I must go and write a letter, then, before dressing; I
particularly want it to get to town to-morrow."

She rose and went in. And at that Lindfield deliberately got up too and
followed her. She walked straight through the drawing-room, he a pace or
two behind, and out into the hall. And then he spoke to her by name.

She turned round at that. There was no