dear Lawrence, you certainly have the art of making your life
run on wheels!" said Laura smiling. "How many telegrams have you
sent today?"

"If you do a thing at all you may as well do it in decent
comfort," Lawrence replied sententiously. "Half past seven;
that'll give us easy time! I booked a table at Malvani's, I
thought you would prefer it to one of the big crowded shows."

"Are we going to have supper--dinner I mean--at a restaurant?"
asked Isabel awestruck.

Laurance smiled at her with irrepressible tenderness. "Did you
think you weren't going to get anything to eat at all?" He
forbore to remind her of her unfortunate allusion to sandwiches--
for which Isabel was grateful to him. "Aren't you hungry?"

"Oh yes: but then I often am. Is Malvani's a very quiet place?"

Lawrence looked at Laura with a comical expression. "What an ass
I was! Wouldn't the Ritz have been more to the point?"

"Never mind, sweetheart," said Laura. "Malvani's isn't dowdily
quiet. It's the smartest of the smart, and there are always a
lot of distinguished people in it. Dear me, how long it is since
I've dined in town! Really it's great fun, I feel as if I had
come out of a tomb--" she checked herself: but she might have
been as indiscreet as she liked, for her companions were not
listening. Laura was faintly, very faintly startled by their
attitude--Hyde leaning forward in the half-light of the brougham
to button Isabel's glove--but she was soon smiling at her own
fancy. "Poor Isabel, poor simple Isabel!" She was only a child
after all.

A child, but a very gay and winning child, when she came into
Malvani's with her long swaying step, direct glance, and joyous
mouth. A spirit of excitement sparkled in Isabel tonight, and
every movement was a separate and conscious pleasure to her: the
physical sensation of walking delicately, the ripple of her skirt
over her ankles, the poise of her shoulders under their
transparent veil. . . . Laura saw a dozen men turn to look after
the Wanhope party, and took no credit for it, though not long ago
she had been accustomed to be watched when she moved through a
public room. But now she was better pleased to see Isabel
admired than to be admired herself.

As they neared their reserved table a man who had been sitting at
it rose with an amused smile. "Have you forgotten who I am,
Laura?"

"One might as well be even numbers," Lawrence explained. "So, as
I knew Selincourt was in tow