Branston came in from the garden to welcome them, looking very
pretty in a coquettish little white-chip hat with a scarlet feather, and
a pale-gray silk dress looped up over an elaborately-flounced muslin
petticoat. She was a slender little woman, with a brilliant complexion,
sunny waving hair, and innocent blue eyes; the sort of woman whom a man
would wish to shelter from all the storms of life, but whom he might
scarcely care to choose for the companion of a perilous voyage.

She professed herself very much pleased to see Gilbert Fenton.

"I have heard so much of you from Mr. Saltram," she said. "He is always
praising you. I believe he cares more for you than anyone else in the
world."

"I have not many people to care for," answered John Saltram, "and Gilbert
is a friend of long standing."

A sentimental expression came over Mrs. Branston's girlish face, and she
gave a little regretful sigh.

"I am sorry you will not see my husband to-day," she said, after a brief
pause. "It is one of his bad days."

The two gentlemen both expressed their regret upon this subject; and then
they went out to the lawn with Mrs. Branston, and joined the group by the
river-brink, who were waiting for the race. Here Gilbert found some
pleasant people to talk to; while Adela Branston and John Saltram
strolled, as if by accident, to a seat a little way apart from the rest,
and sat there talking in a confidential manner, which might not really
constitute a flirtation, but which had rather that appearance to the eye
of the ignorant observer.

The boats came flashing by at last, and there was the usual excitement
amongst the spectators; but it seemed to Gilbert that Mrs. Branston found
more interest in John Saltram's conversation than in the race. It is
possible she had seen too many such contests to care much for the result
of this one. She scarcely looked up as the boats shot by, but sat with
her little gloved hands clasped upon her knee, and her bright face turned
towards John Saltram.

They all went into the house at about seven o'clock, after a good deal of
croquet and flirtation, and found a free-and-easy kind of banquet, half
tea, half luncheon, but very substantial after its kind, waiting for them
in the long low dining-room. Mrs. Branston was very popular as a hostess,
and had a knack of bringing pleasant people round her--journalists and
musical men, clever young painters who were beginning to make their mark
in the art-world,