lose at hand turned towards them.

"It is Lady Dredlinton," Kendrick whispered in his ear.

"Then I will only say," Wingate concluded, "that Lord Dredlinton's
commercial record scarcely entitles him to a seat on the Board of any
progressive company."

CHAPTER II

Josephine Dredlinton, with a smile which gave to her face a singularly
sweet expression, deprecated the disturbance which her coming had caused
amongst the little company. The four men had risen to their feet.
Kendrick was holding a chair for her. She apparently knew every one
intimately except Wingate, and Sarah hastened to present him.

"Mr. Wingate--the Countess of Dredlinton," she said. "Mr. Wingate has
just arrived from New York, Josephine, and he wants to know which are the
newest plays worth seeing and the latest mode in men's ties."

A somewhat curious few seconds followed upon Sarah's few words of
introduction. Wingate stood drawn to his fullest height, having the air
of a man who, on the point of making his little conventional movement and
speech, has felt the influence of some emotion in itself almost
paralysing. His eyes searched the face of the woman before whom he
stood, almost eagerly, as though he were conjuring up to himself pictures
of her in some former state and trying to reconcile them with her present
appearance. She, on her side, seemed to be realising some secret and
indefinable pleasure. The lines of her beautiful mouth, too often,
nowadays, weary and drooping, softened into a quiet, almost mysterious
smile. Her eyes--very large and wonderful eyes they were--seemed to hold
some other vision than the vision of this tall, forceful-looking man. It
was a moment which no one, perhaps, except those two themselves realised.
To the lookers-on it seemed only a meeting between two very distinguished
and attractive-looking people, naturally interested in each other.

"It is a great pleasure to meet Lady Dredlinton," Wingate said. "I hope
that Miss Baldwin's remark will not prejudice me in your opinion. I am
really not such a frivolous person as she would have you believe."

"Even if you were," she rejoined, sinking into the chair which had been
brought for her, "a little frivolity from men, nowadays, is rather in
order, isn't it?"

"It's all very well for those who can afford to indulge in it," Kendrick
grumbled. "We can't earn our bread and butter now on the Stock Exchange.
Even our friend Maurice here, who works as long as an ho