n of it. We cannot be there."

"I am afraid it is the sad truth," he answered. "You see they are all
having tea upon the lawn."

He touched the pony with his whip, and turning off the main avenue,
drew up at the bottom of one of the lawns, before a sunk fence. A
servant came hurrying down to the pony's head, and together Pauline
and he made their way across the short green turf to where Lady Mary
was dispensing tea. Rochester's face suddenly darkened. Seated next to
his wife, with Lois on the other side of him, was Saton!

Lady Mary rose to welcome her guest, and Rochester exchanged greetings
with some callers who had just arrived. To Saton he merely nodded, but
when a little later Lois rose, and announced that she was going to
show Mr. Saton the orchid houses, he intervened lazily.

"We will all go," he said. "Lady Penarvon is interested in orchids,
and I am sure that Pauline would like to see the houses."

"I am interested in everything belonging to this delightful place,"
she declared, rising.

Lois frowned slightly. Saton's face remained inscrutable. In the
general exodus Rochester found himself for a moment behind with his
wife.

"Did you encourage that young man to stay to tea?" he asked. "I
thought you disliked him so much."

Lady Mary sighed. She was a gentle, fluffy little creature, who had a
new whim every few minutes.

"I am so changeable," she declared. "I detested him yesterday. He wore
such an ugly tie, and he would monopolize Lois. This afternoon I found
him most interesting. I believe he knows all about the future, if one
could only get him to tell us things."

"Really!" Rochester remarked politely.

"He has been talking in a most interesting fashion," continued Lady
Mary.

"Has he been telling you all your fortunes?"

"You put it so crudely, my dear Henry," his wife declared. "Of course
he doesn't tell fortunes! Only he's the sort of person that if one
really wanted to know anything, I believe his advice would be better
than most peoples'. Perhaps he will talk to us about it after dinner."

"What, is he dining here?" Rochester asked.

"I have asked him to," Lady Mary answered, complacently. "We are short
of young men, as you know, and really this afternoon he quite
fascinated us all. The dear Duchess is so difficult and heavy to
entertain, but she quite woke up when he began to talk. Lady Penarvon
just told me that she thought he was wonderful."

"He seems to have the knack of inter