"She isn't beaming," cried Patty, almost indignantly; "I won't have that
angelic smile called a beam. Now, you're not to tease. She's a sweet,
dear lady, with some awful tragedy gnawing at her heart."

"Patty, you're growing up romantic! Stop it at once. I'll buy the lady
for you, if you want her, but I won't have you indulging in rubbishy
romance like that, with nothing to base it on."

Patty looked at her father comically.

"I don't believe you'd better buy her, Daddy, dear," she said. "You know
you often say that, with Nan and me on your hands, you have all you can
manage. So I'm sure you couldn't add those two to your collection; for I
feel certain wherever the White Lady goes the Black Lady goes too."

The subject was lost sight of then, by the greetings of some friends who
were passing by the Fairfields on their way out of the Restaurant.

"Why, Mrs. Leigh," exclaimed Nan, "how do you do? Won't you and Mr. Leigh
sit down and have coffee with us? Or, better yet, suppose we all go up to
our drawing-room and have coffee there."

After Patty had spoken to the newcomers and was sitting silent while her
elders were talking, she looked up in surprise as a waiter approached
her. He laid a long-stemmed white rose beside her plate, and said,
quietly, "From Lady Hamilton, Miss."

Involuntarily, Patty glanced at the White Lady, and seeing her smile,
knew at once that she had sent the rose.

As Patty explained the presence of the flower to the others, Mrs. Leigh
glanced across, and said: "Oh, that's Lady Hamilton! Excuse me, I must
speak to her just a moment."

"Who is Lady Hamilton?" asked Nan of Mr. Leigh, unable longer to repress
her interest.

"One of the best and most beautiful women in London," he replied. "One of
the most indifferent, and the most sought after; one of the richest, and
the saddest; one of the most popular, and the loneliest."

All this seemed enough to verify Patty's surmises of romance connected
with the White Lady, but before she could ask a question, Mrs. Leigh
returned, and Lady Hamilton came with her. After introductions and a few
words of greeting, Lady Hamilton said to Mr. Fairfield: "I wonder if you
couldn't be induced to lend me your daughter for an hour or so. I will do
my best to entertain her."

"Indeed, yes, Lady Hamilton; and I think you will find her quite ready to
be borrowed. You seemed to cast a magic spell over her, even before she
knew your name."

"I must confess t