hurriedly.

He did not understand.

"I think every one with an eye to beauty would call you 'queen,'" he
observed, lightly. The graver meaning of her speech had quite escaped
him.

Then Lady Peters returned, and the conversation changed.

"We are going to hear an _opéra-bouffe_ to-night," said Philippa, when
Lord Arleigh was leaving. "Will you come and be our escort?"

"You will have a box filled with noisy chatterers the whole night," he
remarked, laughingly.

"They shall all make room for you, Norman, if you will come," she said.
"It is 'La Grande Duchesse,' with the far-famed Madame Schneider as her
Grace of Gérolstein."

"I have not heard it yet," returned Lord Arleigh. "I cannot say that I
have any great admiration for that school of music, but, if you wish it,
I will go, Philippa.

"It will increase my enjoyment a hundredfold," she said, gently, "if you
go."

"How can I refuse when you say that? I will be here punctually," he
promised; and again the thought crossed his mind how true she was to her
old friends--how indifferent to new ones!