play. So I suppose we shall soon
all be scattered over the face of the earth."

"Except me," Brooks interposed, ruefully. "I shall be the one who will
do the vegetating."

Lady Caroom laughed softly.

"Foolish person! You will be within two hours of London. You none of
you have the slightest idea as to the sort of place we are going to. We
are a day's journey from anywhere. The morning papers are twenty-four
hours late. The men drink port wine, and the women sit round the fire
in the drawing-room after dinner and wait--and wait--and wait. Oh, that
awful waiting. I know it so well. And it isn't much better when the
men do come. They play whist instead of bridge, and a woman in the
billiard-room is a lost soul. Our hostess always hides my cue directly
I arrive, and pretends that it has been lost. By the bye, what a dear
little room this is, Arranmore. We haven't dined here before, have we?"

Lord Arranmore shook his head. He held up his wineglass thoughtfully as
though criticizing the clearness of the amber fluid.

"No!" he said. "I ordered dinner to be served in here because over our
dessert I propose to offer you a novel form of entertainment."

"How wonderful," Sybil said. "Will it be very engrossing? Will it help
us to forget?"

He looked at her with a smile.

"That depends," he said, "how anxious you are to forget."

She looked hastily away. For a moment Brooks met her eyes, and his
heart gave an unusual leap. Lady Caroom watched them both thoughtfully,
and then turned to their host.

"You have excited our curiosity, Arranmore. You surely don't propose to
keep us on tenterhooks all through dinner?"

"It will give a fillip to your appetite."

"My appetite needs no fillip. It is disgraceful to try and make me eat
more than I do already. I am getting hideously stout. I found my maid
in tears to-night because I positively could not get into my most
becoming bodice."

"If you possess a more becoming one than this," Lord Arranmore said,
with a bow, "it is well for our peace of mind that you cannot wear it."

"That is a very pretty subterfuge, but a subterfuge it remains," Lady
Caroom answered. "Now be candid. I love candour. What are you going
to do to amuse us?"

He shook his head.

"Do not spoil my effect. The slightest hint would make everything seem
tame. Brooks, I insist upon it that you try my Johannesburg. It was
given to my grandfather by the Grand Duke of Shleistein. Groves!"

Brooks submitt