Sir Walter Gore----"

"The most admirable Sir Walter Gore!" interjected Luard.

Lady Frances' sallow face flushed very slightly.

"--Sir Walter Gore," she went on, ignoring the interruption, "who is
only twenty-nine--has been ten times round the world--and is imbued
with the deepest contempt for all modern social things."

She laughed again, as she finished; but a fleeting change of expression
had passed over her face.

Clodagh looked up smilingly.

"And where is the likeness to me?" she asked.

"Oh, you are both above mere human temptations, Mrs. Milbanke!" Luard
broke in irrepressibly.

Lord Deerehurst, who had been listening to the conversation, lifted his
eyeglass.

"But then Sir Walter Gore has been ten times round the world," he
remarked in his thin, dry voice. "And this is Mrs. Milbanke's first
visit to Venice."

Again they all laughed, and Clodagh coloured.

"You think my stoicism would not wear well?" she asked.

Deerehurst looked at her searchingly.

"Stoicism may be born of many characteristics," he said. "I am not in a
position to say from what yours springs. But"--he lowered his
voice.--"I do not think you are a natural stoic."

She laughed and glanced uneasily round the little company, already
beginning to break up into groups of two and three.

Observing the look, Lady Frances turned to her tactfully. "Come, Lord
Deerehurst!" she cried. "We are getting too serious. If you _must_
philosophise, take Mrs. Milbanke on to the balcony, where she will have
something to distract her thoughts. For myself, I want to hear
Valentine sing. Val!" she called. "Come to the piano and make some
music! I'm surfeited with stringed instruments and Italian voices."

She moved across the salon; and Lord Deerehurst turned to Clodagh.

"May I follow our hostess's suggestion? May I talk philosophy on the
balcony?"

She smiled. The slight strain, of which she had been conscious ever
since the incident of the roulette, lifted suddenly, and her earlier
sensation of elated excitement returned.

"Yes, if you like," she responded brightly. "The balcony sounds very
tempting. And as for the philosophy, I can promise to listen--if I
can't promise to understand."

She smiled afresh, and crossed the wide room, Deerehurst following
closely.

As she passed the group of statuary and stepped through the open
window, Serracauld struck a chord or two on the piano, and an instant
later, his voice--a full strong voice, in