"Really, Monica, how fortunate to have secured you at short notice like
this," Lord Bracondale was saying. "I only found I had a free evening at
breakfast, and I met Jack on my way to the polo-ground just in the nick
of time."

"We love coming," Mrs. Ellerwood replied. "For unsophisticated English
people it is a great treat. We go back on Saturday--every one will be
asking what is keeping you here so long."

"My plans are vague," Lord Bracondale said, casually. "I might come back
any day, or I may stay until well into June--it quite depends upon how
amused I am. I rather love Paris."

And to himself he was thinking--

"How I wish that atrocious woman over there with the paradise plume
would keep her hat out of the way. Ah, that is better! How lovely she
looks to-night! What an exquisite pose of head! And what are those two
damned foreigners saying to her, I wonder. Underbred brute, the
American, Herryman Hoggenwater! What a name! She is laughing--she
evidently finds him amusing. Abominably cattish of the widow not to ask
me. I wonder if she has seen me yet. I want to make her bow to me. Ah!"
For just then magnetism was too strong for Theodora, and, in spite of
her determination, their eyes met.

A thrill, little short of passion, ran through Lord Bracondale as he saw
the wild roses flushing her white cheeks--the exquisite flattery to his
vanity. Yes, she had seen him, and it already meant something to her.

He raised his champagne glass and sipped a sip, while his eyes, more