smiled, then glanced along the terrace with an air of pretended
secrecy.

"Take me into partnership!" he said in a whisper. "My clients don't
know it, but I'm constitutionally the laziest beggar alive. Do let me
idle in your company for half an hour? The canals are delightful in the
early morning----"

He indicated the flight of stone steps, round which one or two gondolas
were hovering in expectation of a fare.

Clodagh's glance followed his; and her face insensibly brightened.

"I should love it," she said.

"Truly?"

She nodded.

"Right! Then the thing is done."

He hurried forward. And with a little thrill of pleasureable
anticipation, she saw one of the loitering gondolas glide up to the
steps.

For the first few moments after they had entered the boat, she was
silent; for in the iridescent morning light, Venice made a new appeal;
then gradually--insidiously--as the charm of her surroundings began to
soothe her senses, the encounter with Milbanke melted from her mind;
and the subtle environment bred of last night's adulation rose again,
turning the world golden.

As they passed the Palazzo Ugochini, she looked up at the closed
windows of the first floor; then almost immediately she turned to her
companion.

"Mr. Barnard," she said suddenly, "I want to ask you a question. I want
you to explain something."

And Barnard, closely studious of her demeanour, felt insensibly that
her mood had changed--that, by a fine connection of suggestions, she
was not the same being who had stepped into the gondola from the hotel
steps. With a genial movement, he bent his head.

"Command me!" he said.

Before replying, she took another swift glance at the closed windows;
then she turned again and met his eyes.

"Tell me why this friend of Lady Frances Hope's is called 'Sir
Galahad'?"

He smiled.

"Gore?" he said with slightly amused surprise. "I didn't know you were
interested in Gore."

"I am not. But please tell me. I want to know!"

His smile broadened.

"The nick-name surely explains itself."

"Somebody with an ideal? Somebody above temptation?"

"Precisely."

She pondered over this reply for a moment; then she opened a fresh
attack.

"Then why should Lord Deerehurst and Mr. Serracauld have smiled when
they spoke of his meeting me?"

Barnard looked up in unfeigned astonishment; then he laughed.

"Upon my word, Mrs. Milbanke," he cried, "you are absolutely unique!"

Clodagh flushed. For one