nd, his delicate Vandyke features nipped
with the cold; Mr. Claude Drew walked behind and before went Eleanor
Scrotton, smiling a tight, stricken smile of triumph and responsibility.
As the group passed Gregory, Miss Scrotton caught sight of him.

"We are in plenty of time, I see," she said. "Dear me! it has been a
morning! Mercedes is always late. Could you, I wonder, induce these
people to move away. She so detests being stared at."

Eleanor, as usual, roused a mischievous spirit in Gregory. "I'm afraid
I'm helpless," he replied. "We're in a public place, and a cat may look
at a king. Besides, who could help looking at those marvellous clothes."

"It isn't a question of cats but of impertinent human beings," Miss
Scrotton returned with displeasure. "Allow me, Madam," she forged a
majestic way through a gazing group.

"Where is Miss Woodruff?" Gregory inquired. He was wondering.

"Tiresome girl," Miss Scrotton said, watching the ladies with the
flowers who gathered around her idol. "She will be late, I'm afraid. She
had forgotten Victor."

"Victor? Is Victor the courier? Why does Miss Woodruff have to remember
him?"

"No, no. Victor is Mercedes's dog, her dearly loved dog," said Miss
Scrotton, her impatience with an ignorance that she suspected of
wilfulness tempered, as usual, by the satisfaction of giving any and
every information about Madame von Marwitz. "It is a sort of
superstition with her that he should always be on the platform to see
her off. It will be serious, really serious, if Karen doesn't get him
here in time. It may depress Mercedes for the whole of the voyage."

"And where has she gone to get him?"

"Oh, she turned back nearly at once. She was with us in the carriage and
we passed Louise in the omnibus with the boxes and fortunately Karen
noticed that Victor wasn't with her. It turned out, when we stopped and
asked Louise about him, that she had given him to the footman to take
for a walk and she thought he had been brought back to Karen. Karen took
a hansom at once and went back. She really ought to have seen to it
before starting. I do hope she will get him here in time. Madam, if you
please; we really can't get by."

A little woman, stout but sprightly, in whom Gregory recognized the
agitated mother of the pretty girl, evaded Miss Scrotton's extended hand
and darted past her to place herself in front of Madame von Marwitz. She
wore a large, box-like hat from which a blue veil hung. Her s