s
attentive glance noted her heightened colour and her nervously alert
manner.

"To-morrow night, then!" Lady Frances was saying; and he saw Clodagh
nod and smile.

"To-morrow night!" she repeated. "Mr. Barnard, are you ready?"

As she looked round for her cavalier, Serracauld stepped softly to her
side.

"Mrs. Milbanke," he said, "you will not discard my uncle's gondola? He
is waiting to know if we may convey you home."

She looked up at him with a faint suggestion of coldness and distrust.
Then, across the silence of her indecision, the low notes of the
Venetian night music broke forth again, as the musicians' gondola
passed the Palazzo Ugochini on its way homeward. For one moment it
seemed to sweep across the salon through the open windows; then it
faded into the distance, as the boat passed on up the canal. At the
sound, Clodagh's face involuntarily softened, her lips parted, and she
smiled.

"Very well!" she acquiesced below her breath. "Tell Lord Deerehurst
that he may take me home."

CHAPTER VII

During the night that followed, Clodagh's excited thoughts scarcely
permitted her to sleep; but with that extraordinary reserve of strength
that springs from the combination of youth and health, she rose next
morning as fresh and untired as though she had enjoyed unbroken rest.

Coming downstairs at half-past eight, the first person she encountered
was Milbanke, entering the hotel from the terrace. And spurred by her
own exuberant spirits, roused to a sense of general good-will by her
own rosy outlook upon life, she went quickly forward to greet him.

"Good-morning, James!" she said. "I hope you haven't been tiring
yourself."

It struck her as an after impression that he looked slightly worn and
fatigued.

As he took her hand, he smiled, gratified by her concern.

"Not at all, my dear!" he responded--"not at all! I have had an hour's
excursion with Mr. Tomes. I assure you I had no idea that the bye-ways
of Venice were so interesting."

"All Venice is heavenly."

Clodagh's glance wandered across the terrace to the canal, radiant in
the early light.

Milbanke raised his head, arrested by the fervour of her tone.

"Then you--you enjoyed yourself last night?" he ventured with unusual
penetration.

"Oh, so much!" She turned to him with a glowing smile that betrayed a
warm desire for universal confidence and sympathy. "So much! Mr.
Barnard and the tall, dark-haired boy that you met last evenin