conventional sight-seeing; and then, you know, my time here is
limited."

"Exactly!--exactly what I was saying. Your time is valuable. All the
more danger of Mrs. Milbanke's hanging heavy on her hands. Now, there
are some charming people staying here at present, who would only be too
delighted to make her visit pleasant."

Milbanke's expression cleared.

"Oh, well----" he began in a relieved voice.

"Exactly! Lady Frances Hope is here. You remember Lady Frances who
married my cousin Sammy Hope--the red-headed little beggar who went
into the Navy? She would be intensely interested in Mrs. Milbanke. I
wish you would let me make them known to each other."

He smiled suavely, thoroughly in his element at the prospect of working
a little social scheme.

Milbanke looked at Clodagh.

"What do you think, my dear?" he asked vaguely.

Clodagh looked down at her plate.

"I don't quite know," she murmured.

Barnard leant close to her in a confiding manner.

"Quite right, Mrs. Milbanke!" he said. "Never trouble to analyse your
feelings. Just give them a free rein. Lady Frances Hope is a most
charming woman. Always bright, always good-natured, always in the
swim--if you understand that very expressive phrase."

Clodagh smiled as she helped herself to an ice. During their
conversation, the dinner had drawn to its close; and here and there
people were already rising from table and moving towards the hall or
the long windows that opened on to the canal. Unconsciously her eyes
turned in the direction of these open windows, through which a flood of
light streamed out upon the water, bringing into prominence the dark
gondolas that flitted perpetually to and fro like great black bats.

Seeing her glance, Barnard turned to her again.

"Shall we charter a gondola?" he asked. "It's the thing to do here?"

Her eyes sparkled.

"Oh, how lovely!" she said; then involuntarily her face fell and she
looked at her husband.

"But perhaps----" she began deprecatingly.

As the word escaped her, Milbanke--who had been oblivious of the
conversation--pushed back his chair and rose from table with a faint
exclamation of excitement.

"Ah, there he is!" he said, his eyes fixed upon a distant corner of the
room. "There he is! I must not run the risk of missing him!"

Clodagh turned to him eagerly.

"James," she began, "Mr. Barnard says----"

But Milbanke's mind was elsewhere.

"My dear," he said hurriedly, "you must really excuse m