d," answered Dolly. "I am behind time already, but I shall not
be many minutes, and Miss MacDowlas is not like Lady Augusta. Listen; I
believe I hear wheels at the door now. It must be later than I fancied."

It was later than she fancied. As Mollie passed through the hall two
gentlemen who were ascending the steps crossed her path, and, seeing the
face of one who had not appeared to notice her presence, she started
so nervously that she dropped her glove. His companion--a handsome,
foreign-looking man--bent down and, picking it up, returned it to her,
with a glance of admiring scrutiny which made her more excited than
ever. She scarcely had the presence of mind to thank him, but rushed
past him and out into the night in a passionate flutter of pain and
sudden childish anger, inconsistent enough.

"He never saw me!" she said to herself, catching her breath piteously.
"He is going to see Dolly. It is n't the party he cares for, and it
is n't Miss MacDowlas,--it is nobody but Dolly. He has tried to get an
invitation just because--because he cares for Dolly."

She reached home in time for tea, arriving with so little breath and so
much burning color that they all stared at her, and Aimee asked her if
she had been frightened.

"No," she answered, "but I ran half the way because I wanted to be in
time."

She did not talk at tea, and scarcely ate anything, and when Griffith
came in, at about nine o'clock, he found her lying on the sofa, flushed
and silent. She said she had a headache.

"I took Dolly her dress," she said. "They are having a grand party
and--Does Miss MacDowlas know Mr. Gowan, Griffith?"

Griffith started and changed countenance at once.

"No," he answered. "Why?"

"He was there," she said, listlessly. "I met him in the hall as I came
out, but he did not see me. He must have tried to get an invitation
because--well, you know how he likes Dolly."

And thus, the train having been already laid, was the spark applied.

CHAPTER VIII. ~ THE BEGINNING OF THE ENDING.

IT was some time before Griffith recovered from the effects of this
simple announcement of Mollie's.

Though he scarcely confessed as much to himself, he thought of it
very much oftener than was conducive to his own peace of mind, and
in thinking of it he found it assuming a greater importance and
significance than he had at first recognized in it, and was influenced
accordingly. He went home to his lodgings, depressed and heavy of
s