or, "hoped to take you young ladies out on
the second lake and let you try for a big fish this evening."

He walked across the lawn beside them, switching his rod as
complacently as a pleased cat twitches its tail.

"We'll try it to-morrow evening," he continued reassuringly, as though
all their most passionate hopes had been bound up in the suggested
sport; "it's rather annoying--I can't remember who's dining with
us--some celebrated Irishman--poet of sorts--literary chap--guest of
the Gerhardts--neighbours, you know. It's a nuisance to bother with
dinner when the trout rise only after sunset."

"Don't you ever dine willingly, Mr. Barres, while the trout are
rising?" inquired Thessalie, laughing.

"Never willingly," he replied in a perfectly sincere voice. "I prefer
to remain near the water and have a bit of supper when I return." He
smiled at Thessalie indulgently. "No doubt it amuses you, but I wager
that you and little Miss Soane here will feel exactly as I do after
you've caught your first big trout."

They entered the house together, followed by Garry and Westmore.

A dim, ruddy glow still lingered in the quiet rooms; every window
glass was still lighted by the sun's smouldering ashes sinking in the
west; no lamps had yet been lighted on the ground floor.

"It's the magic hour on the water," Barres senior confided to Dulcie,
"and here I am, doomed to a stiff shirt and table talk. In other
words, nailed!" And he gave her a mysterious, melancholy, but
significant look as though she alone were really fitted to understand
the distressing dilemmas of an angler.

"Would it be too late to fish after dinner?" ventured Dulcie. "I'd
love to go with you----"

"Would you, really!" he exclaimed, warmly grateful. "That is the
spirit I admire in a girl! It's human, it's discriminating! And yet,
do you know, nobody except myself in this household seems to care very
much about angling? And, actually, I don't believe there is another
soul in this entire house who would care to miss dinner for the sake
of landing the finest trout in the second lake!--unless you would?"

"I really would!" said Dulcie, smiling. "Please try me, Mr. Barres."

"Indeed, I shall! I'll give you one of my pet rods, too! I'll----"

The rich, metallic murmur of a temple gong broke out in the dim quiet
of the house. It was the dressing bell.

"We'll talk it over at dinner--if they'll let me sit by you,"
whispered Barres senior. And with the smile