away.

"By-the-bye, you haven't told me your friend's name."

He stopped, and answered with a sibilant incoherence, struggling as he
was with his amusement. But at that moment Audrey's attention was
diverted by the sight of Ted coming out of the New Gallery, and she
hardly heard what was being said to her.

"I shall be delighted to see Mr. St. John," she called back, making a
random shot at the name, and went on her way with leisurely haste
towards the New Gallery.

CHAPTER IX

On the evening of her dinner Audrey had some difficulty in distributing
her guests. After all, eight had accepted. Besides the Havilands, with
Mr. Knowles and his friend Mr. St. John, there was Mr. Flaxman Reed,
who, as Audrey now discovered, greatly to her satisfaction, was causing
some excitement in the religious world by his interesting attitude
mid-way between High Anglicanism and Rome. There were Mr. Dixon Barnett,
the great Asiatic explorer, and his wife; and Miss Gladys Armstrong, the
daring authoress of "Sour Grapes" and "Through Fire to Moloch," two
novels dealing with the problem of heredity. Audrey had to contrive as
best she might to make herself the centre of attraction throughout the
evening, and at the same time do justice to each of her distinguished
guests. The question was, Who was to take her in to dinner? After
weighing impartially the claims of her three more or less intimate
acquaintances, Audrey decided in favour of the unknown. She felt unusual
complacence with this arrangement. Her fancies were beginning to cluster
round the idea of Mr. St. John with curiosity. It was to be herself and
Mr. St. John, then. Mr. Knowles and Miss Armstrong, of course: the
critic was so cynical and hard to please that she felt a little
triumphant in having secured some one whom he would surely be delighted
to meet. Mr. Flaxman Reed and Katherine--n-no, Mrs. Dixon Barnett, Mr.
Dixon Barnett falling to Katherine's share. For Ted, quite naturally,
there remained nobody but Cousin Bella. "Poor boy, he'll be terribly
bored, I'm afraid, but it can't be helped."

The Havilands were the first to arrive.

"How superb you look!" was Audrey's exclamation, as she kissed her
friend on both cheeks and stepped back to take a good look at her.
Katherine's appearance justified the epithet. Her gown, the work of her
own hands, was of some transparent black stuff, swathed about her
breasts, setting off the honey-like pallor of her skin; her slig