Presently there was a movement in the distance. A man in knee-breeches
and silver-buckled shoes emerged from the back drawing-room.
Mademoiselle Le Breton rose at once and went to meet him.

"The Bishop has had a long innings," said an old general to Sir Wilfrid
Bury. "And here is Mademoiselle Julie coming for you."

Sir Wilfrid rose, in obedience to a smiling sign from the lady thus
described, and followed her floating black draperies towards the
farther room.

"Who are those two persons with Lady Henry?" he asked of his guide, as
they approached the _penetralia_ where reigned the mistress of the
house. "Ah, I see!--one is Dr. Meredith--but the other?"

"The other is Captain Warkworth," said Mademoiselle Le Breton. "Do you
know him?"

"Warkworth--Warkworth? Ah--of course--the man who distinguished himself
in the Mahsud expedition. But why is he home again so soon?"

Mademoiselle Le Breton smiled uncertainly.

"I think he was invalided home," she said, with that manner, at once
restrained and gracious, that Sir Wilfrid had already observed in her.
It was the manner of some one who _counted_; and--through all outward
modesty--knew it.

"He wants something out of the ministry. I remember the man," was Sir