nel said. "But I will send him a formal
note in your name--'Mr. Lehmann presents his compliments'--may I?"

"All right; but dinner will be served almost directly. Would you mind
telling the waiters to lay another cover?"

About five minutes thereafter, when the company had swarmed into the
dining-room--most of them chatting and laughing, but the more
business-like looking for their allotted places at table--Mr. Percival
Miles put in an appearance, very shy and perhaps a little bewildered,
for he knew not to whom he owed this invitation. Lionel had got a seat
for him between Mlle. Girond and Mr. Carey, the musical conductor; if he
could, and if he had dared, he would have placed him next Miss Burgoyne;
but Miss Burgoyne was at the head of the table, between Lord Denysfort
and Mr. Lehmann--besides, that fiery young lady might have taken sudden
cause of offence. As it was, the young gentleman could gaze upon her
from afar; and she had bowed to him--with some surprise clearly showing
in her face--just as their eyes had met on his coming into the room.
Lionel was next to Nina; he had arranged that.

It was a protracted banquet, and a merry one withal; there was a perfect
Babel of noise; and the excellent old custom of drinking healths with
distant friends was freely adopted. Miss Girond did her best to amuse
the good-looking boy whom she had been instrumental in rescuing from his
solitary dinner in the coffee-room; but he did not respond as he ought
to have done; from time to time he glanced wistfully towards the head of
the table, where Miss Burgoyne was gayly chatting with Lord Denysfort.
As for Nina, Nina was very quiet, but very much interested, as her dark,
expressive eyes eloquently showed.

"It is so beautiful, Leo," she said. "Every one looks so well; is it the
light reflected from the table?" And then she said, in a lower tone,
"Do you see Miss Burgoyne, Leo? She is acting all the time. She is
acting to the whole table."

"That Albanian jacket of hers is gorgeous enough, anyway," Lionel
responded; he was not much interested apparently in the question of Miss
Burgoyne's behavior.

When dinner had been some little time over, the women-folk went away and
got wraps and shawls, and the whole company passed outside, the men
lighting their cigars at the top of the steps. The heavens overhead were
now perfectly clear; the moonlight shone full on the long terrace, with
its parapets and pedestals and plaster figures, wh