of her in some former state and trying to reconcile them with her present
appearance. She, on her side, seemed to be realising some secret and
indefinable pleasure. The lines of her beautiful mouth, too often,
nowadays, weary and drooping, softened into a quiet, almost mysterious
smile. Her eyes--very large and wonderful eyes they were--seemed to hold
some other vision than the vision of this tall, forceful-looking man. It
was a moment which no one, perhaps, except those two themselves realised.
To the lookers-on it seemed only a meeting between two very distinguished
and attractive-looking people, naturally interested in each other.

"It is a great pleasure to meet Lady Dredlinton," Wingate said. "I hope
that Miss Baldwin's remark will not prejudice me in your opinion. I am
really not such a frivolous person as she would have you believe."

"Even if you were," she rejoined, sinking into the chair which had been
brought for her, "a little frivolity from men, nowadays, is rather in
order, isn't it?"

"It's all very well for those who can afford to indulge in it," Kendrick
grumbled. "We can't earn our bread and butter now on the Stock Exchange.
Even our friend Maurice here, who works as long as an hour and a half a
day sometimes, declares that he can barely afford his new Rolls-Royce."

"You men are so elusive about your prospects," Sarah declared. "I believe
that Jimmy could afford to marry me to-morrow if he'd only make up his
mind to it."

"I'm ready to try, anyhow," the young man assured her promptly. "Girls
nowadays talk so much rot about giving up their liberty."