he now muffled voice (perhaps she had a pin in her
teeth, or perhaps she was still further touching-up her lips), "I
suppose he would come if he were invited; but he doesn't know any of
them."

"Why don't you ask Lehmann for an invitation for him?"

"What do you mean, Mr. Moore?" demanded the voice--sharply enough now.

"Oh, nothing."

"I consider you are very impertinent. Why should I ask for an invitation
for Mr. Miles? What would that imply? Do you suppose I particularly wish
him to be there?"

"Oh, I didn't mean to offend," Lionel said, quite humbly. "Only--you
see--the other night you showed me that ingenious dodge of covering the
ring you wear with a bit of white india-rubber--and--and I thought it
might be an engagement ring--worn on that finger--"

"Then you're quite wrong, Mr. Clever," said the voice. "That ring was
given me by a very dear friend, a very, very dear friend--I won't tell
you whether a he or a she--and it fits that finger; but all the same I
don't want the public to think I am engaged. So there--for your
wonderful guessing!"

"I'm sure I beg your pardon," said he; "I didn't mean to be
inquisitive."

But at this moment the intervening curtains were thrown open, and here
was Grace Mainwaring, in full panoply of white satin and pearls and
powdered hair. She was followed by her maid. She went to the long mirror
in this larger room, and began to put the finishing touches to the set
of her costume and also to her make-up. Then she told Jane to go and get
the inner room tidied; and when the maid had disappeared she turned to
the young baritone.

"Mr. Moore," said she, rather pointedly, "you are not very
communicative."

"In what way?"

"I understand you are going to take Miss Ross and Miss Girond down to
Richmond on Sunday; I don't see myself why you should conceal it."

"I never thought of concealing it!" he exclaimed, with a little
surprise. "Why should a trifling arrangement like that be concealed--or
mentioned either?"

Miss Burgoyne regarded herself in the mirror again, and touched her
white wig here and there and the black beauty-spots on her cheek and
chin.

"I have been told," she remarked, rather scornfully, "that gentlemen are
fond of the society of chorus-girls--I suppose they enjoy a certain
freedom there that they don't meet elsewhere."

"Neither Miss Ross nor Miss Girond is a chorus-girl," he said--though he
wasn't going to lose his temper over nothing.

"They have bo