ung American
lady and her mamma were good enough to say how glad they were she had
come to this decision. They appeared to take it for granted that it
was Sheila alone who had declined former invitations.

"Mr. Ingram will be there on Tuesday evening," said Lavender to his
wife.

"I was not aware he knew them," said Sheila, remembering, indeed, how
scrupulously Ingram had refused to know them.

"He has made their acquaintance for his own purposes, doubtless," said
Lavender. "I suppose he will appear in a frock-coat, with a bright
blue tie, and he will say 'Sir' to the waiters when he does not
understand them."

"I thought you said Mr. Ingram belonged to a very good family," said
Sheila quietly.

"That is so. But each man is responsible for his own manners; and as
all the society he sees consists of a cat and some wooden pipes in a
couple of dingy rooms in Sloane street, you can't expect him not to
make an ass of himself."

"I have never seen him make himself ridiculous: I do not think it
possible," said Sheila, with a certain precision of speech which
Lavender had got to know meant much. "But that is a matter for
himself. Perhaps you will tell me what I am to do when I meet him at
Mrs. Kavanagh's house."

"Of course you must meet him as you would any one else you know.
If you don't wish to speak to him, you need not do so. Saying
'Good-evening' costs nothing."

"If he takes me into dinner?" she asked calmly.

"Then you must talk to him as you would to any stranger," he said
impatiently. "Ask him if he has been to the opera, and he won't know
there is no opera going on. Tell him that town is very full, and he
won't know that everybody has left. Say you may meet him again at Mrs.
Kavanagh's, and you'll see that he doesn't know they mean to start for
the Tyrol in a fortnight. I think you and I must also be settling soon
where we mean to go. I don't think we could do better than go to the
Tyrol."

She did not answer. It was clear that he had given up all intention of
going up to Lewis, for that year at least. But she would not beg him
to alter his decision just yet. Mairi was coming, and that experiment
of the enchanted room had still to be tried.

As they drove round to Mrs. Kavanagh's house on that Tuesday evening,
she thought, with much bitterness of heart, of the possibility of her
having to meet Mr. Ingram in the fashion her husband had suggested.
Would it not be better, if he did take her in to dinner,