the
wedding to take place? Would she go abroad for her honeymoon? Who was
to provide the wedding-cake? Where did she propose to get her
trousseau? Would the King and Queen be present at the wedding?

At first Patricia had endeavoured to answer coherently; but finding
this useless, she soon drifted into the habit of replying at random,
with the result that Galvin House received much curious information.

Miss Wangle's olive-branch was an announcement of how pleased the dear
bishop would have been to marry Miss Brent and Lord Peter had he been
alive.

Mr. Bolton joked as feebly as ever. Mr. Cordal masticated with his
wonted vigour. Mr. Sefton became absorbed in the prospect of the
raising of the military age limit, and strove to hearten himself by
constant references to the time when he would be in khaki. Miss Sikkum
continued to surround herself with an atmosphere of romance, and
invariably returned in the evening breathless from her chaste
endeavours to escape from some "awful man" who had pursued her. The
reek of cooking seemed to become more obvious, and the dreariness of
Sundays more pronounced. Some times Patricia thought of leaving Galvin
House for a place where she would be less notorious; but something
seemed to bind her to the old associations.

As she returned each evening, her eyes instinctively wandered towards
the table and the letter-rack. If there were a parcel, her heart would
bound suddenly, only to resume its normal pace when she discovered that
it was for someone else.

Of Lady Tanagra she saw little, news of Bowen she received none. Her
most dexterous endeavours to cross-examine Mr. Triggs ended in failure.
He seemed to have lost all interest in Bowen. Lady Tanagra never even
mentioned his name.

Whatever the shortcomings of Lady Tanagra and Mr. Triggs in this
direction, however, they were more than compensated for by Mrs. Bonsor.
Her effusive friendliness Patricia found overwhelming, and her
insistent hospitality, which took the form of a flood of invitations to
Patricia and Bowen to lunch, dine or to do anything they chose in her
house or elsewhere, was bewildering.

At last in self-defence Patricia had to tell Mrs. Bonsor that Bowen was
too much occupied with his duties even to see her; but this seemed to
increase rather than diminish Mrs. Bonsor's hospitable instincts, which
included Lady Tanagra as well as her brother. Would not Miss Brent
bring Lady Tanagra to tea or to lu