ing herself against him. But her self-possession
was complete.

"Lady Henry seems in better spirits," he said, bending towards her.

She did not reply for a moment. Her eyes dropped. Then she raised them
again, and gently shook her head without a word. The melancholy energy
of her expression gave him a moment's thrill.

"Is it as bad as ever?" he asked her, in a whisper.

"It's pretty bad. I've tried to appease her. I told her about the
bazaar. She said she couldn't spare me, and, of course, I acquiesced.
Then, yesterday, the Duchess--hush!"

"Mademoiselle!"

Lady Henry's voice rang imperiously through the room.

"Yes, Lady Henry."

Mademoiselle Le Breton stood up expectant.

"Find me, please, that number of the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ which came
in yesterday. I can prove it to you in two minutes," she said, turning
triumphantly to Montresor on her right.

"What's the matter?" said Sir Wilfrid, joining Lady Henry's circle,
while Mademoiselle Le Breton disappeared into the back drawing-room.

"Oh, nothing," said Montresor, tranquilly. "Lady Henry thinks she has
caught me out in a blunder--about Favre, and the negotiations at
Versailles. I dare say she has. I am the most ignorant person alive."

"Then are the rest of us spooks?" said Sir Wilfrid, smiling, as he
seated himself beside his hostess. Montresor, whose information on most
subjects was prodigious, laughed and adjusted his eye-glass. These
battles royal on a date or a point of fact between him and Lady Henry
were not uncommon. Lady Henry was rarely victorious. This time, however,
she was confident, and she sat frowning and impatient for the book that
didn't come.

Mademoiselle Le Breton, indeed, returned from the back drawing-room
empty-handed; left the room apparently to look elsewhere, and came back
still without the book.

"Everything in this house is always in confusion!" said Lady Henry,
angrily. "No order, no method anywhere!"

Mademoiselle Julie said nothing. She retreated behind the circle that
surrounded Lady Henry. But Montresor jumped up and offered her
his chair.

"I wish I had you for a secretary, mademoiselle," he said, gallantly. "I
never before heard Lady Henry ask you for anything you couldn't find."

Lady Henry flushed, and, turning abruptly to Bury, began a new topic.
Julie quietly refused the seat offered to her, and was retiring to an
ottoman in the background when the door was thrown open and the footman
announced:

"C