it myself."

They made for the great doors, Anthony tongue-tied, and she hailing
others to follow them.

As they passed down the broad staircase, he remembered the reason of
the party, and begged to congratulate her. My lady thanked him with a
quiet smile.

"We've got a lot to talk about," she said. "You and I. And there'll
be too much noise at supper, so it must wait. Afterwards I'll send for
a coat, and we'll walk in the garden. That's the best of a birthday.
I can do as I please."

Her promise of his peaceful possession after supper made the meal, so
far as Lyveden was concerned, an Olympian banquet. The assemblage,
indeed, was remarkable, and the hostess--a very Demeter--must have been
the oldest present by some twenty years. The sprightliness of Hermes
alone, in the guise of the man called Berry, kept a lively table in
roars of laughter.

Yet, full as his cup was, for Anthony the old Falernian was to come....

As good as her word, when the others were straying back to the gallery
in response to the lure of a lullaby valse, Valerie led Lyveden to a
lobby and let him help her into a chamois-leather coat. A cloak of
Irish frieze was hanging there, and she bade him put it about his
shoulders against the night air. Anthony protested, but she just
stamped her foot.

"It's my birthday," she flashed.

Anthony donned the garment, and she opened a garden-door. A moment
later they were walking upon a wide terrace at the back of the house.

"Well?" said Valerie.

"It is my bounden duty," said Anthony, "to remind you that I am a
footman. Now that you know, it's very easy to tell you."

"And what if you are?"

"Well, if we happened to visit the same house, I should go in by the
tradesmen's entrance."

Valerie tossed her head.

"You might go in by the back, but if you weren't shown out of the front
door, _I_ shouldn't visit that house again."

Anthony sighed.

"Then your visiting-list would shrink," he said, "out of all knowledge.
How did you know my calling?"

"Did you think I didn't recognize you that night?"

"At first I was uncertain. That I thought you must have. Then you
misled me, and made me think you hadn't. Why did you do that?"

"I don't know," said Valerie. She could not tell him the truth. "It
seemed easier. How did you come to The Shrubbery?"

"I wasn't happy where I was, and I saw the Bumbles' advertisement. It
seemed meant for me."

That it was meant for him, and that