looking on;" Lightly the gay voice made answer. The speaker turned from
the glass, her vivid face aglow with merriment. "Really, Olga, if you're
quite determined to do my packing, I think I will run down and entertain
him."

"You needn't trouble to do that. He is with your brother." Olga
proceeded deftly with her task as she spoke. "We found him in the hall
as we came in."

"Bruce back already! How tiresome of him! I meant to have just left a
message, and now we shall have a wordy argument instead."

"Is Colonel Campion ever wordy?" asked Olga, trying to imagine this
phenomenon.

"No, I supply the words and he the argument generally. You might just
hook me down the back, dear; do you mind? What do you think his latest
craze is? Mrs. Bruce is run down, so nothing will serve but we must all
go for a yachting cruise in the Atlantic. I have told him flatly that I
will not be one of the party. I detest being on the sea, and as to being
boxed up in a yacht with those two--my dear, it would be unspeakable! I
should simply leap overboard, I know I should, and I told him so. He has
sulked ever since."

"Ah well, you are coming to us," said Olga consolingly. "So he can go
without you now with a clear conscience."

"So he can. Mrs. Bruce will be enchanted. She hates me, though she
pretends not to and thinks I don't know. Isn't it funny of her? Allegro,
you're a darling!" Impulsively she whizzed round and kissed her friend.