nto his face.

"And am I to answer in good faith?"

She bent her head, still looking at him.

"Then judging by the one case of which I can confidently speak,
yes!--distinctly yes!"

There was a pause; and Clodagh gave a faint laugh.

"And whose is the one case?"

Her voice sounded cool, high, even slightly indifferent. It piqued
Deerehurst to a further step. He answered her question with another.

"Mrs. Milbanke," he said, "have you ever heard of Circe?"

Again she laughed.

"My education was extensive, if very intermittent," she said. "Yes, I
have heard of Circe--and her wild beasts."

He echoed the laugh in his thin, expressive voice.

"I see the implication! But I would willingly play even wild beast--to
your Circe!"

He bent over her chair.

She drew away with a slight, sharp movement; but he did not alter his
position.

"Do you know that a man would follow you--anywhere?"

"Anywhere?"

"Anywhere."

He let his hand glide softly from the back of the chair to her
shoulder.

At the touch of his fingers, she slipped away from him with a noiseless
movement, and rose to her feet.

"Then follow me back to the salon!" she said in a voice that still
sounded high and light.

There was a constrained pause, but it was one of short duration.
Deerehurst was not the man to be easily taken at a disadvantage. For
one instant a glimmering of chagrin showed on his composed face; the
next it was gone. He straightened his dignified figure, and felt
mechanically for his eyeglass.

"'Pon my word!" he said. "I believe you _are_ Circe. Use your
prerogative!"

He turned, laughed a little, and indicated the salon with a courtly
gesture.

Clodagh looked at him. He puzzled and disconcerted her. To one whose
innate instinct was a yielding to impulse, his absolute impassivity in
face of disconcerting situations was something incomprehensible. And
now, as he stepped aside to give her passage, she gave a quick laugh,
expressive of both embarrassment and relief; and crossed the balcony
with a certain instinctive haste.

During their absence, the crowd in the salon had increased; the press
about the roulette-table had become denser; while at half a dozen
card-tables, sheltered from the general gathering by large screens of
old Italian leather-work, parties of four were playing bridge.

Ignoring these latter groups, Clodagh crossed the room towards the
roulette-table, and paused upon the outskirts of the crowd that