e, you know.
Carrissima was in Devonshire and I was kicking my heels in idleness at
Duffield's."

"It really was rather too bad," remarked Phoebe, "to go there this
evening, considering that you were engaged to dine with us. Wasn't it,
Carrissima?"

"Oh, it was shameful of you, Mark!" cried Carrissima, with a laugh.

"You understand how it was," he explained, taking a chair by her side.
"I didn't mean to stay ten minutes. I thought I could get there and
back comfortably in a taxi, and so I should, but----"

"The temptation proved too strong for you," suggested Lawrence.

"I don't know what you mean by 'temptation,'" retorted Mark, while
Phoebe tried to catch her husband's eye. "Bridget was most awfully
pleased to see me. She had a fit of the blues for some reason or
other."

"Is she liable to that sort of thing?" asked Lawrence.

"Not a bit of it," said Mark enthusiastically. "She's just about the
brightest girl you have ever seen in your life. That was what made it
the more upsetting. I felt I must do something to cheer her up."

"So you took her to Belloni's!" said Lawrence. "They do you uncommonly
well at Belloni's."

"Anyhow," Mark admitted, "they gave us some ripping Burgundy. I got
away directly we finished dinner," he continued, "and I knew Phoebe
wouldn't mind."

"Well," said Lawrence, in response to her warning frown, "now you're
here, suppose we have a game at bridge."

CHAPTER III

BRIDGET

To put the matter plainly, Carrissima was jealous.

It was half-past eleven when she reached her father's house at Number
13, Grandison Square, S.W., and she felt pleased to find that the fire
was still alight in the drawing-room. Having told the butler that he
need not sit up any longer, she threw off her long cloak, leaned back
in an easy-chair right in front of the grate, crossed her feet on the
fender, and clasped her miniature waist.

Remembering Bridget Rosser, with her vivid chestnut-coloured hair, her
somewhat pale skin, her wonderful eyes (as Mark quite justifiably
described them), her face, which was extraordinarily attractive,
although it might not contain one perfect feature, Carrissima could not
help feeling that there might be serious cause for jealousy.

Of course, it was evident that Mark had not expected to find her at
Charteris Street; he had believed she was still at Church Stretton with
Colonel Faversham, and perhaps, if he had been aware of her presence in
London,