to-day. But, great hooks, what's all this about Medcroft and Constance?"
He bought some cigarets and started off for a walk, mildly excited by
this new turn of affairs. It occurred to him, as he turned it all over
in his mind, that Mrs. Medcroft was amazingly resigned to the situation.
Of course, she was not blind to her husband's infatuation for her
sister. Therefore, if she were so cheerful and indifferent about it, it
followed that she was not especially distressed; in fact, it suddenly
dawned upon him she was not only reconciled but relieved. She had ceased
to love her husband! She could be a freelance in Love's lists,
notwithstanding the inconvenience of a legal attachment. "She's ripping,
too," concluded Freddie, with a certain buoyancy of spirit. "If she
doesn't love Medcroft, she at least ought to love someone else instead.
It's customary. I wonder--" Here he reflected deeply for an instant, his
spirits floating high. Then he turned abruptly and made his way to the
Tirol.

It came to pass, in the course of the evening, that Mr. Ulstervelt,
supremely confident from the effect of past achievements, drew the
unsuspecting Mrs. Medcroft into a secluded tête-à-tête. It is not of
record that he was ever a diplomatic wooer; one in haste never is.
Suffice it to say, Mrs. Medcroft, her cheeks flaming, her eyes wide with
indignation, suddenly left the side of the indomitable Freddie and
joined the party at the other end of the _entresol_, but not before she
had said to him with unmistakable clearness and decision,--

"You little wretch! How dare you say such silly things to me!"

The rebuff decisive! And he had only meant to be comforting, not to say
self-sacrificing. He'd be hanged if he could understand women nowadays.
Not these women, at least. In high dudgeon he stalked from the room. In