y leaving on Saturday--and
Mr. Weatheral was to order tea without waiting. They had time, however,
for the tea to be drunk and for Mrs. Goodward to become anxious in a
gentle, ladylike way, before it occurred to Peter to suggest that Miss
Goodward might be lurking anywhere in the potted palm and marble
pillared labyrinth, waiting for _them_, suffering equal anxieties, and
dreadful to think of in their present replete condition, languishing for
tea. His proposal to go and look for her was accepted with just the
shade of deprecation which admitted him to an amused tolerance of the
girl's delinquencies, as if somehow Eunice wouldn't have dared to be
late with him had she not had reason more than ordinary for counting on
his indulgence.

"You'll find," Mrs. Goodward let him know, "that we require a deal of
looking after, Eunice and I."

"Ah, I only hope you'll find that I'm equal to it." Peter had answered
her with so little indirection that it drew from the older woman a
quick, mute flush of sympathy. For a moment the homeliness of his lean
countenance was relieved with so redeeming a touch of what all women
most wish for in all men that she met it with an equal simplicity. "For
myself I am sure of it," but lifted next moment to a lighter key, with
a smile very like her daughter's dragged a little awry by the use of
years, "as for Eunice, you'll first have to lay hands on her."

With this permission he rose and made the circuit of the semi-divided
rooms, coming out at last into the dim rotunda, forested with clustered
porphyry columns, and there at last he caught sight of her. She had but
just stepped into its shaded coolness out of the hot, bright day, and
hung for a moment, in the act of furling her parasol, in which he was
about to hail her, until he discovered by his stepping into range from
behind one of the green pillars, that she was also in the act of saying
good-bye to Burton Henderson. There was a certain finality in the way
she held out her hand to him which checked Peter in the hospitable
impulse to include the younger man in the afternoon's diversion. He
stepped back the moment he saw that she was having trouble with her
escort, defending herself by her manner from something accusing in his.
Not to seem to spy upon her, Weatheral made his way back though the
coatroom without disclosing himself. From the door of it he timed his
return so as to meet her face to face as she came up with Mrs. Goodward
and was r