fashioned flowers.

There arose some question concerning Sir Roger Casement.

Murtagh Skeel spoke of him with the pure enthusiasm of passionate
belief in a master by a humble disciple. And the Teutons grunted
assent.

The subject of the war had been politely avoided, yet, somehow, it
came out that Murtagh Skeel had served in Britain's army overseas, as
an enlisted man in some Irish regiment--a romantic impulse of the
moment, involving a young man's crazy plan to foment rebellion in
India. Which little gem of a memoire presently made the fact of his
exile self-explanatory. Yet, he contrived that the ugly revelation
should end in laughter--an outbreak of spontaneous mirth through which
his glittering wit passed like lightning, cauterising the running sore
of treason....

* * * * *

Coffee served, the diners drifted whither it suited them, together or
singly.

Like an errant spirit, Dulcie moved about at hazard amid the softened
lights, engaged here, approached there, pausing, wandering on, nowhere
in particular, yet ever listlessly in motion.

Encountering her near the porch, Barres senior had paused to
whisper that there was no hope for any fishing that evening; and she
had lingered to smile after him, as, unreconciled, he took his
stiff-shirted way toward the pallid, bejewelled, unanimated mass of
Mrs. Gerhardt, settled in the widest armchair and absorbing cordial.

A moment later the girl encountered Garry. He remained with her for a
while, evidently desiring to be near her without finding anything in
particular to say. And when he, in turn, moved elsewhere, obeying some
hazy mandate of hospitality, he became conscious of a reluctance to
leave her.

"Do you know, Sweetness," he said, lingering, "that you wear a
delicate beauty to-night lovelier than I have ever seen in you? You
are not only a wonderful girl, Dulcie; you are growing into an
adorable woman."

The girl looked back at him, blushing vividly in her sheer
surprise--watched him saunter away out of her silent sphere of
influence before she found any word to utter--if, indeed, she had been
seeking any, so deeply, so painfully sweet had sunk his words into
every fibre of her untried, defenceless youth.

Now, as her cheeks cooled, and she came to herself and moved again,
there seemed to grow around her a magic and faintly fragrant radiance
through which she passed--whither, she paid no heed, so exquisitely
her breast