d anxious.

This afternoon, however, she felt that she must talk with him. Waiting
and watching were a new discipline for her, and she was not yet the
child of self-denial. Fate, if there be such a thing, favoured her,
however, for as they drew near to the fireplace where the ambassador
and Alice Tynemouth and her husband stood, Krool entered, came forward
to Byng, and spoke in a low tone to him.

A minute afterward, Byng said to them all: "Well, I'm sorry, but I'm
afraid we can't carry out our plans for the afternoon. There's trouble
again at the mine, and I am needed, or they think I am. So I must go
there--and alone, I'm sorry to say; not with you all, as I had hoped.
Jasmine, you must plan the afternoon. The carriages are ready. There's
the Glen o' Smiling, well worth seeing, and the Murderer's Leap, and
Lover's Land--something for all tastes," he added, with a dry note to
his voice.

"Take care of yourself, Ruddy man," Jasmine said, as he left them
hurriedly, with an affectionate pinch of her arm. "I don't like these
mining troubles," she added to the others, and proceeded to arrange the
afternoon.

She did it so deftly that she and Ian and Adrian Fellowes were the only
ones left behind out of a party of twelve. She had found it impossible
to go on any of the excursions, because she must stay and welcome
Al'mah. She meant to drive to the station herself, she said. Adrian
stayed behind because he must superintend the arrangements of the
ball-room for the evening, or so he said; and Ian Stafford stayed
because he had letters to write--ostensibly; for he actually meant to
go and sit with Jigger, and to send a code message to the Prime
Minister, from whom he had had inquiries that morning.

When the others had gone, the three stood for a moment silent in the
hall, then Adrian said to Jasmine, "Will you give me a moment in the
ball-room about those arrangements?"

Jasmine glanced out of the corner of her eye at Ian. He showed no sign
that he wanted her to remain. A shadow crossed her face, but she
laughingly asked him if he would come also.

"If you don't mind--!" he said, shaking his head in negation; but he
walked with them part of the way to the ball-room, and left them at the
corridor leading to his own little sitting-room.

A few minutes later, as Jasmine stood alone at a window looking down
into the great stone quadrangle, she saw him crossing toward the
servants' quarters.

"He is going to Jigger," sh